Why I switched from front to behind camera – Juliet Asante

By: Adie Vanessa Offiong
May 30, 2015
5 min read

Juliet Asante is a Ghanaian actress turned director of the widely acclaimed movie ‘Silver Rain.’ She shares her experience in the Ghollywood industry and using Nollywood stars for her works.

Weekend Magazine: How did ‘Silver Rain’ come about?

Juliet Asante: It is based on a real meeting. I met a market girl in Ghana; one of those girls who help you carry your goods in the market. I met one of them and she is a northerner; the Hausa equivalent in Nigeria. Her father had over 40 children with many wives. She was 17 when we met and her parents hadn’t seen her for 7 years. She ran away from home when she was 10. I was the first person to take her home after all that time. Her family was shocked to see her because they all thought she was dead. In Accra, they sleep on the street, in the market they lay under horrible conditions but when they get up, they smile and you can never tell even if they haven’t eaten! That was very inspiring coming from the other side of town … and that basically is the story of an average African; we live under very bad conditions but we wake up happy each day and I say Africans are magicians. That’s the inspiration behind the film; the strength of the people.

WM: Why did you choose to screen it in Nigeria?

Asante: I think that Nigerians have done really well and are stepping into a new phase because the future has to be better than your past and Nigerians have done well from wherever they have come from. Rain is an important part of universal change and growth; it kind of washes away the old and ushers in the new. I want to be known as a pan-African filmmaker and this is because I think that we have more to gain as Africans than as individual countries. The movie’s casts are from five countries - Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Sierra Leone. Two very talented Nigerians are in it - Enyinna Nwigwe in the lead role, and the supporting love interest is Uru Eke. Both are very talented people and I was very lucky to have them. I think they will explode on the Nigerian cinematic scene. Their talents cannot be held in. So you see, I cannot evade coming to Nigeria. In a way I am coming home.

WM: Is this your first feature film?

Asante: Yes, as a director. I’ve been in this space for a long time. I run a production house, Eagle Production, and I have worked in the production space internationally for close to 20 years. So I have been around for a long time, both in front and behind the camera. I do a wide variety of genres. At many times, some of my programmes were the best running shows on Ghana television. As a filmmaker, I wanted to do a certain kind of film so I felt till I was ready to make that kind of film; I wasn’t going to make a feature film. I have a product called Mobilefliks, that puts short films on platforms. We actually have an app on the Google play store. Many of the films that came to me were shorts. I didn’t think they were meaty enough for a one hour, 30 minutes slot. With ‘Silver Rain,’ I knew immediately that I had a feature film on my hands. Every film has its audience. I had a story I wanted to tell and till I was ready to tell that story in a way that I think would carry it best, I wasn’t going to tell it. In 2014, I was ready.

WM: Why did you go from in front of the camera to behind it?

Asante: Very early, I think my second or third film, I decided I wanted to explore directing more, because every time I was in front of the camera, I found myself more interested in what was going on behind the camera. After business school, I decided to go back to film school. The first day of class told me I had made the right decision. I like acting, but I love directing and I love writing. As one grows, things shift into perspective and you focus more on things that you love and you do less of things that you like. It took me about 10 years after I met this girl to do the film, I wrote the story down and went back to school because I am the bookish kind of person. Then sometime last year, I was in a near fatal accident and it was all over the news. So after that the realisation dawned, I knew I just had to stop.

WM: What was the motive behind the political twist to the film?

Asante: The politics in the film is what actually drives it and is therefore very important. There are many issues that afflict the continent and oftentimes, politics is smack in their middle. As filmmakers it is very important that we tell our own stories. That is what Nigerians are very good at. Unlike some filmmakers around the world who try to tell the American story or the British story, Nigerians are brilliant at telling their stories. I feel that as Africans, if we are going to penetrate the world and if we are going to make a mark we need to tell our own stories. But we must package it in a way that the rest of the world would find it easy to swallow. Part of telling that story is telling what happens in our countries. As you know a lot of what we do for now is largely intertwined with politics, so it was only natural if you are telling a story like that that they political environment will feature. What is interesting though, is how the film seems so relevant to what is happening politically around the continent, when I had no inkling when I wrote it over five years ago! It just came together. When we were showing the film in Ghana, in many ways, it felt eerie the way the film fitted in with the political environment and the same thing is happening in Nigeria too! It is even more interesting that you change governments on the day that the film comes out; the 29th of May. ‘Silver Rain’ is driven on the mantra of ‘We want change’ in many scenes in the film, the people called for a change in government and their conditions … and so you have it!

WM: Aside from writing scripts, do you do any other kind of writing?

Asante: I also write for the Huffington Post. I write a lot and I have always wanted to write novels as well, but I haven’t had the time, so this is the beginning. I’m doing more of what I love and not what I like; this is the reason I am novelising ‘Silver Rain.’ This is the turning of ‘Silver Rain’ into a novel. I am having so much fun with that. It’s exciting because when you are writing a script, it’s so different from when you are writing a novel. The script in many ways is limiting and novel is liberating. You get to go into the heads of your characters and their background and have fun with them. Something you are discouraged from doing with a script. I am enjoying the process. The book is going to come out towards the end of the year, you have to get that.