Today started with me not wanting to get out of bed, because as usual I was up late. I had to get a draft of the script to the lovely Ben, who is sorting out the budget. Anyway I woke up and thought, I have so much work to do, do I really want to go to a conference and listen to people tell me what I already know? But then I thought, but maybe they will have solutions or action points or suggestions on what can be done to improve the diversity of minority groups in the UK film & TV industry.  I’ve dipped in and out of the media world through the passing years. I started with radio, managed to get one radio play on Radio 4, but then my lovely producer left to have a baby and that was the end of that.  The next play she was going to commission disappeared into the nether regions of the BBC.  I tried for several years to get another script made, but it was always one excuse or another, so I gave up and got a job that paid my rent.

While I had that job, I wrote a book, which I sent off to publishers and I heard the same story and excuses.  Yes you’re a great writer, but we don’t have a place for you on our slate, you’re not quite what we’re looking for right now, blah, blah, blah. Every writer has those war wounds and can tell you the disappointment that comes with every rejection.  I was tired of being told, you’re great but there’s no place for your voice, so I went out and I self-published and I was incredibly lucky to meet people who helped me along the way.  From Tula, who helped me with the cover design and typography, Jonathan who let me use his gorgeous painting as my front cover, Clare who when I embarked on my journey introduced me to Scott who blogged about my book and started a conversation.  So now I find myself again having a variation of those same conversations with people. This time I’m told, there isn’t an audience for your kind of story, no one wants to go to the cinema to watch a coming of age story about a British/Nigerian girl.  I’d like to swear, but I’ve made a rule of no cussing. I’m only allowed when I’m driving and I get the Capital Ws who bought their licence online or had someone else take their test for them and should not be operating a motor vehicle.  Rant over, where was I? So yes, who watches what?

The fact of the matter is, there is an audience for high quality and low quality content that tell stories that relate to peoples experiences.  Let’s take a look at Nollywood, the 3rd largest film industry in the world and most of their customers live in the Diaspora, and they’re not all Nigerian either.  We all know that the quality isn’t great, but there is a reason Nollywood exists and people consume these films.  We want to see images of ourselves we can relate to on the big screen, and Nollywood, despite the low production values and not so great stories, fulfil a hunger.  We have been starved for too long.

Making a film, isn’t like writing a book so the challenge I face as a writer/director/producer (had to tag producer on ‘cos I haven’t found one yet) is that after I’ve cajoled investors into believing I can deliver a product, which will make a return on their investment; I’ve then got to convince a distributor or sales agent that the audience for my product does exist, but they don’t believe people will want to watch a film with an unknown female black lead and cast.  My answer to that is Beasts of the Southern Wild.   To cut my rambling short, I think my takeaway from today’s event (Yesterday now, it’s 2am) is that the only way to move forward in this industry is to take charge of my own destiny.  I refuse to listen to the negativity, yes it exists, yes it’s a constant battle. But it’s a fight I can’t give up on, because if I give up, in 2030 we’ll still be talking about the same issues and nothing will have changed.

So by hook or by crook, Imagine This the movie will get made and not only that, it will find it’s audience and make a return.  WATCH THIS SPACE.