Well, well, well... I recall reading a Tweet last week I believe it was, from Isaiah Washington, saying that he'd just landed in Lagos, Nigeria with the filmmaker, Tony Abulu (he also included a photo of the two of them); I replied to his Tweet asking if this was "a collab in the spirit of Pan Africanism;" while he didn't say specifically, he did retweet my query, suggesting that what I said was indeed accurate.
Anyway, as it turns out, I missed the rest of his tweets, because he went on to say even more about the project over the following 2 or 3 days, but I missed all those tweets.
And now that you're sufficiently out-tweeted... the goods from the press release I just received:
- First, the film is titled Doctor Bello.
- Second, it stars the aforementioned Isaiah Washington, as well as Vivica A. Fox, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Bern Cohen, Genevieve Nnaji (maybe the most internationally well known Nollywood actress), Stephanie Okereke (also a Nollywood actress) and many others.
- Third, the film’s synopsis states, "The Cure for Cancer has been found in the sky mountains of Africa, and an American Oncologist will risk everything to get it."
- Fourth, the film is scheduled for release in Summer 2012.
- Fifth, it's the first movie project financed in part by the recently established Nigerian Intervention Fund for the arts and entertainment industry administered by NEXIM Bank.
- And sixth, a website for the project exists at www.doctorbello.com.
That's pretty much the gist of it all, although I'll do some digging and return with a fuller write-up.
As noted in previous posts, we're seeing more and more of these cross-continental connections, between African American and African talents; most recently, Kimberly Elise in award-winning Ghanaian-American filmmaker Leila Djansi's Ties That Bind, and Vivica Fox in Nigerian filmmaker Jeta Amata's Black November.
I'm unfamiliar with director/producer Tony Abulu's past work, but that will hopefully be rectified soon enough; I will say, however, that, based on his resume I just read, he's been in the biz for a long while.
Brilliant Cancer specialist Dr. Michael Durant is emotionally troubled, wrestling with the traumatic loss of his 10 year old daughter from Cancer. Immersing himself in his work in the hospital, away from his wife who blames him for their child’s death, he forms an unlikely bond with a sick, loving, but rambunctious seven year old boy Sam, the son of a rich Jewish couple who are major contributors to the Hospital’s Cancer Research Fund.
Unfortunately, Sam’s health deteriorates drastically, and soon, he slips into a coma, with only a few days to live. Dr. Durant becomes desperate, willing to risk anything to save the child’s life. A surreptitious Nigerian Nurse convinces him to seek the help of Dr. Bello, an uncertified Nigerian Doctor, known in the Brooklyn-African underground as a miracle worker. Dr. Bello, an introvert with a controversial past, secretly visits the child at night and administers a strange African potion, replete with incantations and by the next morning, miraculously, the child begins to recover, the Cancer speeding into remission.
The Hospital Medical Board immediately orders an investigation and soon the secret is revealed and Dr. Durant is suspended. Dr. Bello is arrested and charged with medical malpractice. Dr. Durant soon falls into depression after his wife leaves him. Meanwhile, Dr. Bello has fallen critically ill in jail and can only be saved by the ingestion of the same potion that can only be found in the mysterious “Garden of Life,” nestled on the peak of Nigeria’s sky mountains.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment