MOJI OLAIYA BURIAL VIDEO: BAYOWA FILMS IS UNETHICAL AND WICKED – IBADAN FILM CIRCLE

Press Statement

Ibadan Film Circle, a collective of professionals including actors, directors, producers and film scholars, is unanimously disturbed at the action of Mr. Gbenga Adewusi, an independent film marketer (Bayowa Films) who has been found to have made a production of the recording of the burial of the late ace actor, Ms. Moji Olaiya, with the intention of selling and profiting from the unathourised production.

The public will recall that Moji Olaiya died recently in Canada and had since been buried. Barely a month after the burial, a “documentary” titled “From Canada to Grave” has surfaced, sold and distributed by Bayowa Films. There is no indication that the grieving family of the late actor is aware of this production; neither is there any indication that the production is going to be only for charity or support purpose.

By this act, Mr. Adewusi’s company has done something provocatively unethical and criminal worthy of sanctions by all stakeholders in the Nigerian creative arts industry. In its entire concept, the project is obnoxious and dehumanizing, just as the “documentary” is inappropriately titled – absolutely spiteful, vulgar, careless, sarcastic and gloating, as if Ms. Olaiya’s predicament was self-inflicted and therefore worthy of jest.

We ask “who sells a film on the burial of a colleague, and where is Mr Adewusi’s sense of decency and respect for the dead?” It may be argued that very little thought went into the making of the ‘project’, but we aver that so much deliberate but selfish thought went into the production.

We believe that, unless otherwise determined by her immediate family, the video of Ms. Olaiya’s burial is legally the private property of her estate. It is absolutely distasteful and brutally wicked for an enterprise like Bayowa Films, its owner(s) and collaborators to engage in acts which tend to show them as reaping from the sweat, sorrow and tears of others.

 

IFC condemns Bayowa Films production of Olaiya’s burial ceremony for commercial purpose. IFC calls upon all well-meaning practitioners, including members of TAMPAN, NANTAP, etc, and members of the public to join in condemning the wicked opportunism of Bayowa Films and others who are in league with such a heartless production.

IFC is committed to contributing to the education of the film sectors of the Nigerian creative industry. We use this opportunity to reject the idea of free but uncivilised market practices where anything goes, where professional decorum is only secondary to the scramble for wealth