Munya Vomo
When the first Nigerian movies were released they made for some good laughs. They were of poor production quality, featured very bad acting and even worse scripting. But what we did not anticipate was the amount of support these ventures would get from Africans.
Truth be told, the first Nigerian filmmakers were making the films only for their local communities and they were filmed in their indigenous languages. It was the demand of these poorly made films that made them change to English, which can still be hard to under-stand because it is Pidgin English. Still, the demand was great.
In South Africa at the time we were making great films like Tsotsi and Jerusalema, but they needed bigger budgets.
Singer Sello Twala took the initiative to use the Nigerian film model and out of that came the Madluphutu series, a comedic package that zoomed in on South African township life.
Not to be left out, e.tv introduced the eKasi stories series where film-makers made straight-to-TV films that South Africans could relate to. The success of this venture led to the birth of eKasi+, an e.tv channel that encourages more of these homegrown products.
The biggest player to get into this game, though, is Mzansi Magic’s Lokshin Bioskops inititative.
Celebrating their first year in existence this week, we look at the successes that came with the channel that takes local film-making seriously. Mzansi Magic is where people find hit shows like Saints and Sinners and Isibaya, but you do get the occasional Lokshin Bioskop. The channel’s top show has to be Zabalaza, which is also the first Lokshin soap opera.
Back to the films, seeing the demand that came with the township films, Mzansi Bioskop, a dedicated channel was born. Here you see movies made by South Africans for the South African market 24/7. There is nothing fancy, no sophisticated storylines, but they are quite addictive as they show the life of the ordinary man.
While established names like Khanyi Mbau appear in these movies, there are youngsters who are cutting their teeth in the industry using this avenue.
We have taken the initiative and now need to have a sort of Lokshin Awards so that more people take this movement seriously.
If you look past the low-budget aspect of the Lokshin Bioskops you will see that 10 years from now things will have improved. It was an empowering move by all involved and now we don’t only get to watch international productions, we have our own.
Lokshin Bioskops on Mzansi Magic (channel 161) Mzansi Wethu (channel 163) and Mzansi Bioskop (DStv channel 164).