1. Midnight Angels
2. Brave Girls of the Night 1
3. Brave Girls of the Night 2
(the third and fourth will be minted tomorrow).
I have been creating NFT #series on #women showing their challenges in life from the V for Vivian series to THE MATRIX WOMAN series and today I started the Brave Girls of the Night series.
I call them Storytelling NFTs.
The "Scars of Vivian" on the true life cases of women in abusive relationships, failed marriages and domestic violence is most likely going to have a film adaptation for international release. An art collector of NFT artworks has selected it with four othes which are among my most special NFTs, including "Ethereum Rising".
I am creating these NFTs with the film adaptations on my mind.
It is baffling how Nigerian news media and their news reporters will continue to peddle falsehood on "Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman" being the first film adaptation of one of the works of Prof. Wole Soyinka.
The colourful film adaptation of "Death and the King's Horseman", one of the most popular plays of Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during the British colonial era: the horseman of a Yoruba King was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities is erroneously being reported as the first film adaptation of one of his literary works.
So what of the previous film adaptations of Soyinka's plays and autobiography?
"Kongi's Harvest" of 1970 directed by Ossie Davis and produced by Francis Oladele, Lennart Bern
“Ake: The Years of Childhood” by Mr Dapo Adeniyi; 2016
"Sidi Ilunije", the film adaptation of "The Lion and the Jewel" by Tunde Kelani in 2017.
When Mo Abudu, the producer of the film said "Elesin Oba" is the first film adaptation of Prof. Wole Soyinka's works on Instagram, I corrected her that there have been film adaptations of other plays of Soyinka. But I have seen repetitions of this falsehood in several news reports.
Misinformation on the facts of life and history does collateral damage to human knowledge and education. And the realization is more important for Mo Abudu who should be well educated on the history of filmmaking in Nigeria and film adaptations of Nigerian literary works, because she is a highly respected stakeholder in the Nigerian film industry as the Founder and CEO of the EbonyLife Group, owners of EbonyLife Studios, EbonyLife Films and the EbonyLife Creative Academy.
I have viewed this epic music video of "Ameno" of ERA by Eric Levi and I thought it was the trailer of the movie. The song produced in 1996 by the Baby Boomers generation is currently having worldwide resurgence by both millennials and Gen Z on TikTok.
The film adaptation is long over due and I found the historical background of the theme of the song on http://www.euronet.nl/users/ernstoud/era.html.
The following is enough treatment for the screenplay. And I will like to produce it.
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WhatWhat Can I Say?
In August 1998 I visited a late 19th century fortress 'Fort Vuren' which was once part of the defense system New Dutch Waterlinie, meant to defend the Northern part of Holland, in particular the city Gorinchem. This fortress was never used in battle and is now sometimes used to house art exhibitions. During such an exhibition they played music that overwhelmed me. The cold and very damp fortress (with feet-thick concrete walls below ground level) with its church-like acoustics together with the music melted into an almost eerie experience.
I thought I heard an album by Enigma. But it turned out to be an album called 'ERA' by the French composer and guitarist Eric Levi.
The music is a weird mix of Gregorian chant (performed by the English Chamber Choir), rock and disco. Musicians are Lee Sklar, Chester Thompson, Philippe Manca, Neal Wilkinson, Patrice Tison and Eric Levi.
I only recognize Chester Thompson who always played drums with Phil Collins when Genesis was on tour.
Parts of the album remind me of the Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, other parts seem inspired by early works of Mike Oldfield.
On first sight it is hard to tell what this concept album is about. The CD sleeve contains little information apart from a two couplet verse:
When the children of Montsegur came down from the pog
The sun had not yet returned day to the world
On their pale faces could be seen their grief and sadness
Without faith they went
Time had passed, the children have grown with great hope
And sometimes, when they look up to the mountains
They can hear those strong and beautiful voices
Beating on the sound of a rhythm, the Cathar rhythm.
Based on this verse and the enormous encyclopedia the Internet has turned into, it is fairly easy to do research.
At the start of the 13th century Catholicism reigned supreme but a number of Christian diversions where popular. The acts of Pope Innocentius III made large amounts of people hostile towards Catholicism because it seemed that Church did present Rome instead of faith. A fertile environment for heresies, one of these was Catharism, of which the largest group formed in the South of France, in the Languedoc area near Toulouse.
Catharism preached that the body is evil but that one's soul is devine and therefor must be set free. During the 13th century the Inquisition and Crusades controlled from Rome eradicated the Cathars. Montsegur (Mont Segur = Safe Mountain) was one of the last Cathar bastions to fall when (after a siege of 10 months) the Cathars on Montsegur were given 14 days to surrender. They had the option to deny their faith or be killed. Almost all choose to keep faith so 205 men and women were burned at the stake on March 15th 1244.
There is a lot of mystery about the Cathars and Montsegur. On July 21st the sunrays enter and leave the ruins through four openings. Did the Cathars have some solarian rites?
Also it is believed that just before the surrender of the Cathars at Montsegur, a party was secretly sent down to rescue the Cathar's treasure and hide it in secrecy, never to be found again ...
This film adaptation of the Aba Women’s Riot in 1929 by Moses Eskor only exposed the opportunism of both the director and the film distributor. And I am disappointed that an actor as well educated as Sam Dede featured in this bastardization of the historical facts of Aba Women's Riot and Daniel Okechukwu's review has said it all for me.
If you don't have the intellectual education for the comprehensive research and professional competence in filmmaking, it is best to hands off the film adaptations of historical events. You cannot give what you don't have.
A good film adaptation of the Aba Women's Riot is the kind of film that can qualify for the Official Selections of the Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Berlin and make the nominations for the Academy Awards. But as Okechukwu said, they messed it up. It is a Nollywood comedy of the Aba Women's Riot. They even said, "We move!"
I have the entire transcripts of the court trials and the details of the principal characters and situations of the circumstances and consequences of the Aba Women's Riot and they are available for any proven filmmaker who has the criteria for the film adaptation.
- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Publisher/Editor, NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series.
