Nollywood Exclusive | 3 July 2008 20:28 CET

Odey, Utomi, Adesanya, others for Nollywood Summit

In its quest to reposition the Nigerian motion picture industry, the Movie Reporters' Guild of Nigeria, MORGON, has concluded plans to host what many, especially industry observers, tag the biggest summit ever in the annals of Nollywood.

Fittingly tagged: Nollywood, Our Nollywood, the summit holds on Thursday, August 28, 2008, at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Ikeja, Lagos with several dignitaries as Guest Speakers. Secretary of the body, Mr. Chibueze Okereke, in a press statement, reiterated that the Nollywood summit is among other plans being put in place by MORGON to reposition the thriving nation's movie industry otherwise called Nollywood.

“MORGON was established in the first place to assist in the repositioning process of Nollywood. Now that we have successfully held the investiture ceremony of our Life Patron, Mr. Andrien Gbinigie, the executives have come together to unveil our programmes for the year with the summit coming top as our priority.”

He further described movie reporters and Nollywood practitioners as “partners in progress”, stating that the forthcoming event would be the biggest in Nollywood.
Among the dignitaries already billed to deliver topical papers at the historic summit are: Mr. John Odey, Minister of Information and Communica-tion, Mr. Afolabi Adesanya, Managing Director of Nigerian Film Corporation and renowned businessman, politician and academic, Prof. Pat Utomi. Coming from the UK to also deliver thought-provoking papers at the summit are the duo of Kene Mkparu, the first black General Manager of Odeon chain of cinemas and Magnus Mbanu, a BBC trained film maker alongside Marc Wishengrad, a leading Hollywood filmmaker, coming from the US. Meanwhile, Mr. Andrien Gbinigie, CEO of Atlantic Overseas and Life Patron of MORGON, would be the Special Guest of Honour at the grand gathering.

President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, popular actor Ejike Asiegbu could not hide his joy on the coming event. “I salute the courage and thoughtfulness of these young, vibrant men and women. It would be a refreshing difference for people who have covered events in the industry for some time, organizing something like this. It would go a long way in helping to redefine and reposition Nollywood. The Actors Guild of Nigeria is totally in support of the forthcoming Nollywood Summit,” he said.

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