By Edna Ezinneamaka Onunaku
In a bid to promote the Gbagyi culture and language within the country and the world at large, four young men in the persons of Shagari Gbegbe, Better Shekwozhna, Sarki Tanko and Parisa Luko have set up the Gbagyi Movie Industry (GMI) as an offshore of Nollywood.
The Gbagyi tribe are the original inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.
At the launch of the movie industry and unveiling of their first movie titled “Avyinu Jeashna” meaning “Thieves looking for the god’s trouble”, which took place Sunday at the Gbagyi Town Hall, Dutse-Pe, in the Federal Capital Territory, Sunday, the organiser of the event, Shagari Gbegbe, stated that the Industry has been established to serve as an umbrella body that will provide assistance to upcoming Gbagyi Movie Production Houses and Musical Artistes of its origin.
Fielding questions from Nwafolive, the Secretary of GMI, Sarki Tanko, decried the rate at which people are no longer perturbed by the negative influence around them and have deviated from the values passed on by their fathers with emphasis on Integrity.
He said the movie, “Avyinu Jeashna” seeks to emphasises that a person incurs the wrath of the gods on himself and his entire generation whenever he is found guilty of stealing, in his words;
“It is quite unfortunate that Gbagyi culture is gradually phasing out because so many tribes here in Abuja are dominating the language and if we don’t do something about it, the generation yet unborn may not know there is a culture like Gbagyi.”
“So we deemed it fit to put up this industry that will promote the Gbagyi culture through movie, acting and music.” “Avyinu Jeashna” is the birth child of that dream and we hope that with time as people watch the movie, they would be drawn back to the values of our culture and by then we would keep to our motto: “Redefining Gbagyi culture.”
Meanwhile, Mr Tanko expressed the challenges they face as a novel industry. He said,
“We all know that DVD/CD players are phasing out as people prefer using decoders like the GOTV, Startimes, DSAT, Strong and Media Houses to mention but a few.”
He thereby appealed to the general public especially the top Gbagyi people to make possible a slot in any of the decoders or Media Houses so as to promote Gbagyi movies and showcase their rich culture to the world, while further pleading that GMI is in need of production equipments such as Boo Mic, professional coverage cameras, production lights and crème movable tripod.
