Kunle Afolayan: Filmmaker to speak on challenges and opportunities in Nollywood at the UN

Kunle Afolayan has been invited to the United Nations to discuss the opportunities and challenges in the Nigerian film industry.

Kunle Afolayan has been invited to the United Nations Office at Geneva to discuss the opportunities and challenges in the Nigerian film industry.

The panel, which will hold from November 13 - November 14, 2017, will be a week-long negotiation between UN Member States' diplomats on what to do about copyright protection worldwide.

The panel is aimed at giving filmmakers an opportunity to explain to these decision makers what they (producers and directors) need to set up the right kind of legal infrastructure for filmmaking business.

 

Afolayan will speak alongside Lagos-based copyright lawyer, Bankole Sodipo, who heads a pan-African film sales agency (DIFFA).

This invitation comes after Nigeria recently presented four key Copyright ratified Treaties to the Assembly of member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization to aid the fight against piracy.

 

Also,  Afolayan's 2016 pan-African film, "The CEO," which stars Wale Ojo, Hilda Dokubo, Angelique Kidjo among others, will screen for the diplomats and delegates at the event.

"I feel honored to have been invited to such as it’s a good call. This will give room for the issue of piracy to be discussed, addressed and dealt with on a global scale," Afolayan said to Pulse Nigeria.

"And I feel super excited that our film the CEO would be screen to such dignitaries," he added.

 

The Nigerian entertainment industry has been battling with the recurring monster called piracy for more than two decades with little or no solution.

In 2014, few weeks after the release of "Half of a Yellow Sun," a film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's book of the same name was pirated.

In 2015, Kunle Afolayan's award-winning movie "October 1" was pirated. Over the years, other movies and series including "Maami," "30 Days in Atlanta," "Jenifa's Diary" and "The Wedding Party" have been pirated, costing filmmakers millions of naira.

Kunle Afolayan is a filmmaker popular for films such as "The Figurine," "Phone Swap," "Irapada," "Omugwo," "Tribunal" and "Roti."