Ghanaian filmmaker Leila Djansi has been explaining why she suggested that new film producers should not be put under the umbrella of Nollywood.

Leila, in a TV interview on Netflix, stated that the new producers aligning themselves with Nollywood was as bad as a “mother calling her son Hitler”.

The comment received a lot of backlash from Nollywood, with actress Stella Damasus taking offence because she apparently felt Leila's comment was insulting. Leila, in a long blog post titled 'WHAT'S IN A NAME', addressed the issue to further clarify the point she had earlier made in her interview. She made some startling revelations about how Nollywood originated and added, “Nollywood does NOT represent the Nigerian Film Industry…”

Below is the verbatim reaction of Leila Djansi, culled from her leilasparty.blogspot.com:

Leila is trending again. Some lady from Nollywood made a video on me. (I hope I get some royalties, I am tapped out.) In the 2012 documentary Jimmy goes to Nollywood.

A very fun moment between Jimmy and I, goofy with some serious undertones, I am asked whether the new “Nollywood” films should also be called Nollywood and I said no. Def Not! They are like oil and water. They are too different. It's kinda like calling your child 'Hitler'. What I meant here was history. If you name your child 'Judas', you raise eyebrows. Your child will spend the rest of his life defending his name. Make his life easy, give him a name that does not come with burden.

New Nollywood films are made with lots of money and resilience. A number of the filmmakers reached out to me asking about wider distribution. A good number are my friends and we talk about challenges of filmmaking whiles black and African. Many of the roadblocks to wider distribution lay in the identity of films that have emerged from Nollywood in the very recent past. For the most part, Hollywood does not buy films because they have watched them. They buy films based on precedence. That's why you hear phrases like “in the vein of “Cast Away. Meaning, my film is kinda like the Tom Hanks film Cast Away. Now that is a pitch. Cast Away made so so and so amount of money, right. Let's see your film. That's how films are sold. Precedence. Not sentiments.

Leila Djansi
What this lady and others do not understand, unfortunately, is Nollywood does NOT represent the Nigerian Film Industry. It is a genre of the Nigerian film industry. It is a style of filmmaking found within the industry. Just like in Ghana we have Kumawood and the English section. So why would you make an English movie and call is a Kumawood movie?

The name Nollywood was coined by an American documentary filmmaker who gave it that name because of the style it identifies with: low budget, shot in less than a week, relatable storylines, straight to DVD/VCD. That is what identifies a movie that is “Nollywood”. So, if the new films that do not meet these criteria also call themselves Nollywood, are they not giving themselves a wrong name?

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We love Nollywood and Kumawood, but we know also that they are not the standard of filmmaking. This is a case of “A monkey is loved by his mother, regardless.” Or, “the hencoop is always home for the chicken”. Every Sunday, I watch Nollywood films. EVERY SUNDAY. So I do not disparage Nollywood, but I will not dress it up and call it a prize either. It is important to be honest about what you got wrong and praise what you got right. Nokia 3310 phones were saviors. Pioneers. But they had to be replaced to meet up with current times. We have phones and we have smart phones. What's in a name? Identity. In identity, characteristics. You are selling yourself short calling your 100,000 budget film “Nollywood”. You actually get paid more money by buyers if you tag your film “international film” or “Cinema quality”. All these tags exist because a new identity has not been created to accommodate the new style.

These new films from Nollywood are films aiming at globalizing the African film scene. Africa is so disrespected and through films, we can change that narrative. To limit the potential of these films by tagging them also Nollywood is not fair. Every film from the continent is called Nollywood. Sinking Sands (which happens to be Jimmy Jean Louis' foray into that world) is called a Nollywood film, Ties That Bind, Nollywood film. I am called a Nollywood filmmaker. I am Not. I have a right to decide my identity. I will not apologize for that.

It's an opinion. Mine. You are not being forced to accept it. The name you respond to is what you'll be called. If you cook fried rice and wrap it in plantain leaves, it will be called waakye.

What do you want to be called? There is nothing wrong with having multiple identities within one industry. American film is one big umbrella but inside it are many identities: Indies, studio films, low budget, black film, European cinema. Many. Each of those categories contains an identity. You know what to expect.

If you watch the entire documentary and see the difference between the old and new 'Nollywood', anyone with a discerning mind will understand exactly what I mean. I did not call Nollywood Hitler. I cannot compare an industry to a human. I gave an example of names, identities. How having a controversial name, a name that is associated with controversy is not helpful. It was even meant to elicit laughs, but since it seems these people have been “looking for me”…

They also complained I touched on fashion. Again, they took that out of context. I said the actors dress the same. As in, if you see maybe my buddy Jim Ikye in designer shoes, jackets and dark glasses in a movie, you see him in real life and it's the same. He is someone who always wears designer shoes and clothes. He makes an elegant fashion statement in films and in real life. Thus, you wonder where the film ends and real life begins. There should be a difference between what we see in movies and what we see in real life. You see actresses in 10 films and it feels like they are playing the same role over and over again. Costume is supposed to create a difference.

Nollywood elicits snickers. That is the bitter reality we are all dealing with because one way or the other, the tag affected us too. In the documentary, all of us who were interviewed had complaints about Nollywood: Ama K, Majid, Ebbe. But I was singled out to be abused. It makes me happy because it means my opinion matters. I am not excited about the death threats I received, but I have filed them with the appropriate quarters and moved on to telling life-changing stories and championing the cause of women.

Instead of getting your panties in a tangle, unite and work towards changing that identity, rather than being bedazzled by temporary highs of premieres and 10-inch eyebrows and red carpets.

By Francis Addo (Twitter: @fdee50 Email: [email protected] )