DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

O-town is my exploration into genre filmmaking. I’ve wanted to make this film for years now, but for funding reasons I’ve kept it shelved, and focused more on evolving the script and on other projects. So far I worked on an uncompleted experimental art-house piece titled “Jim & Joan”, and a horror feature titled “OJUJU"..

O-town is a passion project, I should say because I combine a lot of real elements which I am fully versed in, and weave them into fiction. First, O-town is really a town in the South-eastern part of Nigeria, and I did grow up in that town. I used my alias “Fiery” the disposer as a fictional filmmaker who has a near omnipresent overview of the town and all that’s going wrong with it, and decides to do something about it as best he knows how…make a film about it. In the end, merely talking about it proves not to suffice, as is a metaphor for all that is wrong with any society. Merely talking doesn’t help and bloodshed only begets more bloodshed.

O-town to the best of my knowledge will be the first of its kind genre-exploration film making. It’s one part mockumentary, thriller, drama, African western, narrative gangster flick. I believe in conveying Cinema though an African voice. By that I mean, making what Cinema is and known to stand for, African. I did the same thing with my zero budget film “OJUJU”, which is essentially a zombie flick (another first of its kind from these parts) but localized a well-known pop culture and sub-genre and making it African. OJUJU is shot entirely in pidgin-English and local languages like Yoruba and Igbo. O-town follows the pattern as is applicable to Owerri, where the dominant languages are English, Pidgin, and Igbo. Also, we’re localizing the genre to convey the environment in as authentic a fashion as possible. We hope to break new bounds with this film.

C.J. "Fiery" Obasi
Writer / Director