Between being harrased by a really big muscle man and getting the evil eye from Fathia “don’t take my picture” Balogun, I managed to get gists and a few pictures at the premiere of Stephanie Okereke’s new movie “Through the Glass” this past Sunday.
First, I got my ticket to the event by entering and wining a contest on facebook. I was elated because I had heard so much about the film, and here I was going to the premiere for free, and a chance to witness what promised to be a great event.
The event was held at the Silverbird Galleria on Ahmadu Bello in Victoria Island, Lagos. Like I expected, the event was graced by many Nollywood celebrities like Chidi Mokeme, Eucharia Annunobi,Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Mona Lisa Chinda, Kanayo O. Kanayo, Ngozi Ezeonu,Patrick Doyle, Zik Zulu Okafor, Tchidi Tchikere, Emem Isong and Other celebrities and socialites like Grace Egbagbe, john Fashanu, 2face Idibia and Sammy Okposo
With all these people in attendance, I started taking pictures immediately I got to the red carpet. I was only on my 5th or 6th shot when some gigantic looking man tapped me on the shoulder. He asked if I had a press pass, I said no but I had an invitation which I was holding. Imagine my shock, when this man physically moved out of the way. The worst thing was that there was a white man right in front of me who had the same colour invitation and doing the same thing but Mr. Hefty did not even go near him not to talk of asking him any questions. This is what we have to deal with in Nigeria. Our own people treating us like dirt but you have to learn to show tolerance or else you stand the risk of going bonkers.
Apart from the above incident, I can report that the red carpet event was colourful. The event proper did not start until 7pm although red carpet commenced at 4pm. When it finally kicked off, Patrick Doyle was the MC. He started by introducing celebs in the house and showed us clips of Stephanie during her ghastly motor accident years back and her healing process. This was indeed a touching moment, especially when she now came out to give a speech with two co-actors who flew all the way from Los Angeles to grace the occassion.
THROUGH THE GLASS is a romantic comedy that deals with issues of responsiblity, abuse, trust, betrayal and acceptance. It tells the story of Jeffery a promiscous and unserious lad who constanly gets reminded by his rich CEO father of how unreliable and inefficient he has been on being MD of the company and how he stands the risk of loosing his job if he doesnt show any form of seriousness or commitment to his job. He also has a strong bad repuation of being a womanizer and so when he finds a baby abandoned at his door steps, he is no least shocked and so were the welfare officers and police who strongly believe the baby could be his. Amidsts diificulties and tension, Jeffery with the help of his nigerian neigbour Ada( stephanie okereke) are able to take care of the kid and jeffery becomes fond of him but soon the junkie carefree mother of the child discovers how much money she could be making from the government by being a mother and decides to take her son back but Jeffery is ready to give it all he has got, he isnt ready to let go of that one person that has ever made him happy and content and doesnt criticize him.
All in all it was okay, simple story, no complicated plots, nothing extra-ordinary, even dialogue was as simple as it could get. My star of the movie was the little baby who cried at the right moment, stopped when it was needed and i couldnt just help but think it was all pre-planned towards the baby's moods. I didnt also understand why not even a scene throughout the movie could show us what the baby was called, they called him "baby" through the whole film, at least Jeffery who was getting so fond of him could have named him something, even the biological mother called him baby throughout, strange!. And whats with everyone having sex when they are either supposed to be at duty or place of responsibility eg Police man when jeferry called to report found baby, Nicole, jef;s ex when he called to find out if she could help with the baby.....and even Jeffery in the office scene, not a bad idea, but sometimes i would rather a writer be more dynamic and with a unique sense of style when writing to make it come as real as possible, i almost did take some stuffs with a pinch of salt....I dont intend spoiling this by giving out too much since its unreleased...all in all it was a well attended event and not a bad start for a proffesional career, big ups to the NEXT PAGE PRODUCTIONS team.
