12 QUICK FACTS ABOUT AMINA, NOLLYWOOD LATEST BIG BUDGET FILM ON NETFLIX

By AZUH AMATUS

1 Pioneer filmmaker, Okey Ogunjiofor is the producer cum executive producer of Amina, while Izu Ojukwu directed the big budget film.

2 Over 1000 Northern artistes and 86 Southern crew members worked on the set of Amina, in Jos, Plateau State.

3 Amina is a feature film made with collaborations that spanned three continents of Africa, Europe

and America.

4 Amina is the captivating and thrilling story of the life and times of Queen Amina of Zazzau. It also draws affirmative actions towards the plight of women and the girl-child.

5 Ogunjiofor, the producer of Amina, first wrote the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Centre for Women Development for partnership to produce a gender based book and film based on the life of Queen Amina, on August 8, 1996, which was 25 years ago, but got no favourable response.

6 “Amina” was executed using all the benefits of High-Definition Video origination equipment (ALEXA), up-to-date cinematographic support devices and computerized digital edit including motion graphics and 5.1 surround sound.

7 Artists were first camped for three months and trained on how to ride horses, and use swords to fight on horse backs, before going into the shoot proper.

8 Amazingly, Amina will be enjoying a global release as a Netflix original film on November 4, 2021.

9 Ancient buildings of mud and stones were constructed on locations for the shoot because there was no place, they could find a semblance of Amina’s palace in those days that wouldn’t have the trappings of modernity.

10 Masoma Africa Foundation, a female gender-based NGO, assisted the producer to get some funding for Amina from The Kennedy Center Washington, for the research.

11 Kennedy Center Washington flew in two of their topmost artistic directors into Nigeria to authenticate the story of Amina and obtain the stage rights of the project for their center.

12 The producer and his crew travelled to Zaria, Kaduna, Bauchi, Dass, Abuja, Suleja, Kano, Turunku, Jos, Taraba, Kogi, Ilorin among other towns and states to gather enough information to produce the historical perspective of Amina in a book format, first.