Abba T. Makama is a Nigerian writer, director, visual artist and producer. He is known for directing '' Green White Green'' and ''

The Lost Okoroshi ''The Lost Okoroshi'' is a 2019 Nigerian film produced, directed and edited by Abba Makama under the production studio of Osiris Film and Entertainment. The movie links the African traditional belief system with modernity. Plot The film r ...

''. He is the founder and the creative director of Osiris Film and Entertainment. His films focus on telling Nigerian stories to a global audience and illustrate how connected and similar the world is regardless of national boundaries. His work is largely inspired by dreams and Jung’s theory of the

collective unconscious Collective unconscious (german: kollektives Unbewusstes) refers to the unconscious mind and shared mental concepts. It is generally associated with idealism and was coined by Carl Jung. According to Jung, the human collective unconscious is populat ...

. His work also explores theme of classism, spirituality, tradition and in genres such as comedy, drama, mockumentary, satire and magical realism. Abba is a co-founding member of the Surreal 16 collective. Inspired by the Danish cinema movement Dogme 95, Surreal 16 was born from a mutual admiration by three Nigerian filmmakers (Makama, C.J Obasi and Micheal Omonua). They became disillusioned by the abundance of slapstick comedies and wedding films. The Collective set out to diversify output and encourage a new type of cinema. The collective wrote a manifesto containing sixteen rules and guidelines that govern the making of their films. The rules were announced during a panel at Africa International Film Festival 2017 after the screening of their first anthology film ''Visions''. In 2021 Abba and the collective founded the S16 film festival, a platform for the new wave of African cinema that speaks the universal vocabulary of film. ''

Juju Stories ''Juju Stories'' is a three-part anthology film exploring juju (magical) stories rooted in Nigerian folklore and urban legend, written and directed by C.J. Obasi, Abba Makama and Michael Omonua. The film features three stories: "Love Potion" by O ...

'' is three-part anthology film exploring juju (magical) stories rooted in Nigerian folklore and urban legend. Abba directed the second segment called "YAM".

Early life

Abba Makama was born in

Jos Jos is a city in the north central region of Nigeria. The city has a population of about 900,000 residents based on the 2006 census. Popularly called "J-Town", it is the administrative capital and largest city of Plateau State. During British ...

Plateau State Plateau State is the twelfth-largest Nigerian state. It is in the centre of the country includes a range of hills surrounding the Jos Plateau, its capital, and the entire plateau itself. Plateau State is described as "The Home of Peace and To ...

as the third child of Samu'ila and Julie Makama. He obtained his first degree in Business Management from the State University of New York at Fredonia, and studied film at New York University.

Recognition

In 2015, his 2014 documentary movie about Nollywood was premiered on Aljazeerah and was nominated for African Movie Academy Awards. In the same year, his ''Party of Minister'' was screened at Black Star Film festival in Philadelphia, USA. ''Green White Green'' and ''The Lost Okoroshi'' were screened at Toronto International Film Festival. While the former won the best Nigerian movie at the 2016 Africa International Film Festival, the latter got screened at the 2019

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

and Berlin Critics Week in 2020.''Juju Stories'' had its world premiere at the

Locarno Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, s ...

Switzerland 2021 where it won the Boccalino d'Oro award for best film. ''Juju Stories'' also won best director at African International Film Festival 2021.

Filmography

*''Party of Minister'' (short film) (2013) *''Nollywood: Something From Nothing'' (2015) *'' Green White Green'' (2016) *''Visions: Shaitan'' (2017) *''

'' (2019) * ''Juju stories: Yam'' (2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makama, Abba Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Nigerian film producers Nigerian film directors Nigerian chief executives New York University alumni Nigerian documentary filmmakers Nigerian media executives State University of New York at Fredonia alumni