FIFTY YEARS after it was produced, the film adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s classic novel, Things Fall Apart, has returned as the subject of attention at an international gathering in the United States.
On February 20 at the GALLERY 72 / 72 Marietta StNW, Atlanta, the film will be screened to a gathering of culture literati, cineastes and academia.
Organised and promoted by Modern Art Film Archives, the Atlanta programme is curated by Mireya Palmeira of Kultur Ensemble Atlanta, with support of the German Federal Foreign Office, and cooperation of @goethezentrumatl; @gallery72atl; @thetaraatlanta; @cityofatlantaga; @atlantaoca; @germanyatlanta; @afatl; @deutschekinemathek, and @Kultur Ensemble Atlanta.
The project is coordinated by Mareike Palmeira,
Project Development Officer of the Modern Art Film Archives.
On Things Fall Apart
Produced by Nigeria’s pioneer legendary filmmaker, Francis Oladele (late), the film has not enjoyed the aide viewership it deserves. The Atlanta screening will be preceded by a Reception at 6: pm. with Oladele’s son,
7:00 PM reception and speeches Lanre, who has remained the keeper of Oladele’s film estate, as Guest of Honour. A trained theatre artiste himself, who, however, had an illustrious career in the Oil & Gas sector, Lanre will be fielding questions from the audiences.
Also accompanying the screening will be an exhibition of the still photographs taken in the course of the production by Stephan Goldblatt. The exhibition is described as “An exploration of the complexities of cultural conflict and change.” It is curated by Mallam Mudi Yahaya, Nigeria’s photographer and culture enthusiast, who in a 2023 testament, after a similar outing of the project in Lagos, said, “When the Bullfrog jumps in the sun whyThings Fall Apart is still a very relevant black film till this day.”
“The Black Economic Union (BEU) was a group of African American professional athletes with three goals: to use the money of African Americans collectively for the benefit of all, to put together loans with a focus on the interest rates for Blacks in business and industry, and, finally, to increase the number of Black people in business and industry. The BEU promoted economic empowerment and the use of “green power” as a means of obtaining freedom, justice, and equality, which in some political quarters was seen as an ideological twin of Black nationalism. The face of the BEU and its most visible founder was Jim Brown, Cleveland Browns football star turned actor. Jim Brown was one of the big investors of Bull Frog In The Sun/Things Fall Apart.
WHEN Obi Okonkwo completes his studies in England and returns to Nigeria, he finds himself in a country marked by rapid industrialisation and deep political change. In a time of social upheaval, Obi represents modern Nigeria. Through his gaze, his expectations, those of his environment and the woman he loves become visible. And the disappointment of these expectations. Obi experiences the spreading corruption, the dominance of the Europeans and conflicts with the values of traditional societies. In flashbacks, his struggle is interwoven with that of his grandfather Okonkwo. The latter experiences the first foreign influences in his village of Umuofia, from the arrival of the Christian missionaries to British colonialism.
In Germany, the film opened the so-called Africa Days in Bonn in 1971 under the patronage of the then-German Foreign Minister Walter Scheel. A newspaper report from October 1971 stated: The participation of the Federal Foreign Minister in the opening was of special significance since the Federal Foreign Minister started his trip to five West African countries immediately afterwards so that the Africa Days practically expressed the growing importance of the German-African partnership within the framework of the overall concept of German foreign policy.
READ MORE: When The Bullfrog Jumps In The Sun
Also in the States, the premiere is a socio-political event. Under the patronage of Maynard Jackson, the first African-American mayor of Atlanta, the African-American society came to the premiere in 1974. Chinua Achebe is among the guests, Francis Oladele has arrived, and he is Maynhard‘s brother-in-law, the media reports on the reception afterwards with two hundred guests. In the States, the film premiered a full four years after production in Nigeria. Correspondence in the production files reveals that one of the reasons for this delay was the difficulty in finding a distributor for the film. So, without further ado, the first black-oriented film distributor was founded.
Crew Director / Jason Pohland | Asst. Director / Tunde Adeniji, Heinz Freitag | Screenplay / Fern Mosk | Based on / Chinua Achebe (novel) | Director of Photography / Michael J. Davis | Assistant camera / Terence Bulley, Ganiyu Ojo | Still photography / Stephen Goldblatt | Art Director / Dave Aradeon | Make-up / Trixie Ashby | Costume / Funke Curtis | Editing / Christa Pohland | asst. editor / Alhaji Arulogun | Sound / Ivan Sharrock | Sound assistant / Andreas Pohland, Niran Alabi | Consultant / S.O. Alabi (technical advice)
Cast Obi Okonkwo / Johnny Sekka | Clara Okeke / Elizabeth of Toro | Obierika / Orlando Martins | Joseph / Carey Andrew-Jaja | Peter / Steve Allis | Bushnell / Stephen Goldblatt | Bisi / Iyabo Aboaba | Government Minister / Femi Marquis | Editor / Boniface Afoko | General / Sam Siller
Production Company / Cine 3 (FRG), Calpenny Nigeria Films Limited (NG), Nigram (US) | Producer / Wolf Schmidt (Cine 3), Francis Oladele (Calpenny Nigeria Films Limited) | Executive producer / Edward Mosk | Associate producer
/ John Schmeding | Unit production manager / Martin HausslerMarquis | Editor / Boniface Afoko | General / Sam Siller
Production Company / Cine 3 (FRG), Calpenny Nigeria Films Limited (NG), Nigram (US) | Producer / Wolf Schmidt (Cine 3), Francis Oladele (Calpenny Nigeria Films Limited) | Executive producer
/ Edward Mosk | Associate producer / John Schmeding | Unit production manager / Martin Häussler | Production assistant / Tom Mosk
Jason Pohland was born in 1934 in Berlin. At the age of 21, he founded his first production company. In the following six years, more than 30 short films are produced, some of which win awards at international film festivals. In 1962, together with Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Herbert Vesely and others, he took advantage of the publicity
at the Oberhausener Shortfilm Festival to proclaim a manifesto called Papa‘s Cinema is Dead. They want to break with current conditions of production and demand an end to the prevailing lethargy to make possible the New German Cinema. At this time Pohland has already produced his first feature film Tobby. His second feature, The Bread Of Those Early Years premieres in Cannes. It is awarded with the Filmband in Gold in five categories. When the state began to subsidize films in 1965, his film Cat and Mouse was one of the first supported projects. Even before the premiere, the film causes the greatest political film scandal in the Federal Republic of Germany. »The film was one of the final impulses for me to choose politics, « says Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier today. The Rebels Of Ober-hausen, Pohland‘s last film of 2011, recalls those events. Pohland died on May 17, 2014 in Mande- lieu-Napoule near Cannes.
READ ALSO: US Rejects Claims of Funding Boko Haram as Aid Spending Faces New Scrutiny
“Film Stills by Stephen Goldblatt”
In time for the 50th anniversary of the film adaptation of Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, the icon of postcolonial literature, more than 2000 unpublished film stills, various production papers, correspondences, as well as a film print of the production from 1970 has been found in the estate of the Berlin filmmaker Jason Pohland (1934-2014). Things Fall Apart was made in Nigeria shortly after the Biafra war and had been lost for decades. As a result, little was known about the circumstances and the creation of this film.
Executive Nigerian Producer Francis Oladele (1933-2015) established Calpenny Nigeria Films Limited – the first independent film production company in Nigeria – in 1965 to provide a platform for artistic expression more profoundly and open the Nigerian arts to an international audience. His debut film Kongi‘s Harvest (1970) already set standards. The film is based on a play
by Wole Soyinka, who also plays the lead role. Oladele succeeded in hiring the American Ossie Davis, a close friend of Malcolm X and very active in the civil rights movement, as director for this first project. Things Fall Apart, Oladele‘s second feature film, is another key part of the beginnings of Nigeria’s pre-Nollywood movie industry. The film, made by a few international but mostly local crew members, was directed by Jason Pohland.
Goethe-Zentrum Atlanta will present a selection of this archive’s findings. The photographs show Chinua Achebe on set, the Ugandan princess, lawyer and later diplomat Elizabeth of Toro, who shortly after shooting becomes Uganda‘s foreign minister, 1899 in Lagos born actor Orlando Martins – Nigeria‘s first international film star – in his last role as Obierika, John Sekka, the popular Senegalese actor in the leading role of Obi Okonkwo, or co-founder of Lagos Freedom Park Iyabo Aboaba in her role as Bisi.
Some crew members have later made great careers: the still photographer Stephen Goldblatt became a director of photography, shot Batman films and was nominated twice for an Oscar, the assistant editor Alhaji Arulogun became one of Nigeria’s pioneer broadcasters and later headed several ministries for the state government of Oyo State, Ivan Shar- rock, the sound mixer, won two Oscars.
The Curators:
Akinbode Akinbiyi
BERLIN-based Akinbode Akinbiyi is one of the well-known African photographers. His photographs of everyday life in African cities bring viewers closer to urban life
in Africa and convey an impression of its undergoing rapid change. Akinbode Akinbiyi is also an intercultural mediator through his curating work. He has curated several exhibitions for the Institut für Auslands- beziehungen, including Spot on … DAK’ART (2009). A pan-African project he co-initiated has also made him an important mentor of young photographers from Africa.
Gisela Kayser
After twenty-five years and three hundred exhibitions of documentary, political and artistic photographs at the Willy Brandt Haus in Berlin, Gisela Kayser has experience like few others in this field. As artistic director and managing director of the Freundeskreis Willy Brandt Haus, she and her team were responsible for the cultural programme of the house and gave important impulses to the social discourse. She accompanied and supported other exhibition projects in museums and galleries as a curator, was a jury member at various award ceremonies at the Berlin University of the Arts, was a nominator at the International Center of Photography New York and was a jury member of the Alfred Fried Photography Award 2019. Since July 2021, Gisela Kayser has been working internationally as a freelance curator for selected projects.
