I Want to make films that can compete with the very best of Hollywood films – Seyi Olatujoye
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Seyi Olatujoye, son of Prince Barr.
Anthony Olatujoye , former Director of Legal Services CBN, is a UK trained , US based movie Producer who is doing good for himself by all standards in the highly competitive Hollywood. His new movie, BOBERT is the rave of the moment in the United States. In this exclusive session with thepolity.net, Seyi spoke of his journey into the sizzling Hollywood movie world among other issues.
– Steve Ovirih.
Excerpts:
Thepolity: Until your debut with BOBERT, a lot of your folks back home don’t know you. Who exactly is Seyi Olatujoye?
Seyi Olatujoye -Thank you very much for having me. Who is Oluseyi? That’s a very good question. I often ask myself this question and I think the easiest way to describe myself is to go back to the very beginning. I was born and raised by two loving parents in Lagos, Nigeria. After high school, I left the country and travelled to the UK to further my education. In 2011, I decided to pursue filmmaking and I haven’t looked back since then. I now live and work in the US as a filmmaker.
Thepolity : You are a Nigerian in The Diaspora. What informs your foray into movie making?
Seyi Olatujoye –
My foray into filmmaking came out of frustration from what I felt was a lack of good storytelling paired with high level craftsmanship and as a Nigerian, I want to make films that can compete with the very best Hollywood films. Nollywood has come a very long way but there’s still a lot of work to be done and I hope to be one of the people to help bring that change.
Thepolity : Tell us about BOBERT. What’s the story behind the movie?
Seyi Olatujoye –
Bobert is a short film that follows the story of a young skateboarder in Brooklyn who creates different personas to hide his homelessness. The making of this film came together very organically. I met a group of young skateboarders at my work and I immediately introduced myself to them. I knew nothing about skateboarding or skate culture but I was fascinated by the way these boys rolled into the building on their skateboards. Within a month of meeting the boys, I wrote a screenplay and cast two of the boys in the lead roles. We shot the film in the winter of 2020 and premiered it at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival.
Thepolity: what are the challenges you encountered in the build up to the production of the movie? So far, I understand it’s a box office hit at its premiere . What’s the review so far on BOBERT?
Seyi Olatujoye –
As a filmmaker, you are trained to always expect challenges on set. Majority of what we do on the job is problem solving because things never go as planned and like I said before, we shot the film in the winter and most of the shoot was outside. It was a very cold winter in New York and spending 8 to 10 hours a day for 3 days, out in the cold, is always challenging but we managed to pull it off. Also, this was two weeks before the lockdown and there were talks of a global pandemic looming. We knew we had to get the job done as there was so much uncertainty surrounding the situation.
The festival is currently ongoing and the reviews are yet to come out but we have shown it to some friends and colleagues and the feedback has been positive so far.
Thepolity: Seyi, what’s your take on youths involvement in Nigerian politics? Do you think Nigerian youths have what it takes to take the mantle of leadership from the older generation of politicians?
Seyi Olatujoye –
I am very happy that a lot of Nigerian youths are very active in politics but we need to take that energy and turn it into running for offices. More than half of the country’s population is under 35 and there’s hardly any representation in government for these people.
Thepolity :
Where do you see yourself in another five years?
Seyi Olatujoye –
In 5 years, I hope to continue to make films that spark conversations and bring awareness to social-political issues.
Thepolity: Thank you for your time . I wish you more success as you make Nigeria proud in Hollywood.
Seyi Olatujoye: Thank you very much too. Appreciate!
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