ABASSENO UKO’s Experience

I have learned that those who know where they are going at a young age are much more likely to achieve their goals successfully. I thank God for giving me a father and mother who not only understood this, directing me towards my natural love for films and movies but also taught me the importance of humility as I succeeded in an amazing film career. My dad, Joe Uko, was a painter and a fine artist. He followed his dad, my grandfather, Harry Uko, who was a sculptor. As a youngster in Nigeria, they taught me to trace human figures from fashion catalogues, coloring them with old fashion crayons, to the delight of my family, teachers, and friends. That sort of art in today’s Africa would be nothing to “write home about”, but in the 70’s it was an important beginning to those kids lucky enough to have fashion magazines, paper, and crayons.
Dad saw that my drawings had promise and my art was good –admittedly, his perception was clearly clouded with the love of a father–as he kept pushing me to get better and better throughout my adolescent years. From his own artistic career, he knew that the difficulties in making a living as a fine artist and painter no matter how good you were, so he encouraged me frequently his overly with his lovingly, loud, and expressive voice “I want you to make your images to walk and talk!” He took great delight in animation, visualizing me to a leading animator in Africa. At that time, one of a few.

One day dad came home with a used 16 mm cinematic projector and sporting a big smile, “Abasseno, let’s make your perfect drawings come to life!” I was so thrilled! I knew it must have cost him a fortune and looking back, my fondness and love for him is over the top. None of my friends had a father so kind, so creative, and such a natural teacher as mine. He defended me when I was right, and with hard love, made sure I did not repeat the natural bad things boys do.
Dad then showed me how to build my own cinematic projector with a cartoon! We took a medium-sized empty carton and cut a square hole in the front and a round hole on the backside. We then cut transparent cellophane paper into the size of 35 mm film strips glued them together into about twenty feet long then used a marker to create frames. He then taught me how to draw matchstick images directly on the frames to tell my animated story. You can imagine my excitement winding the roll of African-style film onto a small wooden rod beneath the square hole then gluing it to another rod above the square hole. We used a flashlight to shine light onto the cellophane paper and manually turned the roll creating our first animated cartoon, projected on our home’s wall. When I watched the images I drew moving, I opened my mouth and started shouting; providing sound effects as my cartoon characters were riding on horsebacks:
“jakri-jakri, mande-mande,
Jakri-jakri, mande-mande,
ude-ude-ude-ude-ude-ude-ude-ude!”

I was adding a talking voice to my animated movie. I was shouting with joy to add life and sync the movements of my cartoon characters. My dad gave me all the credit for the brilliant movie, even though he was the one that deserved it.
I also convinced my dad that I really wanted to act. He agreed and in elementary school, he strongly encouraged me to act in theatrical productions of popular African plays, written by South African author, Athol Fugard, and Nigerian authors, Eneh Henshaw, Wole Shoyinka, and J.P. Clark.
I became a very good actor at a young age and in my teens at Holy Family College, I took leading roles in Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’. I also acted in ‘As You Like It’, ‘Comedy of Errors, ‘Henry IV parts 1, 2, and 3’, ‘Antony and Cleopatra’, ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Merchant of Venice’.
In the seventies when I was 19 years old, I traveled to the US and studied acting at the “Stage Group Theater” in San Francisco. I worked as an actor, a theater director, and a producer in the Bay area. I went to study filmmaking at San Francisco Art Institute, graduating in 1983. I work very well as a professional actor, writer, and film director! My novel “JOE LEVI AND THE PRICE OF PERSIA” set in San Francisco will be published this year. I plan to direct it into a feature film for international audiences. Currently, I am working as an Actor, Writer and Filmmaker in Africa.
In concert with my acting career, in 2002 I registered my company, Filmagic Africa Ltd and our business is the coordination of feature film productions, TV Series, Documentaries, and corporate videos anywhere in Africa. Our connections in each of the continent’s countries are massive and our core business is to supply everything a film producer or director needs to make an excellent film or video production anywhere in Africa. If you are planning a production anywhere in Africa and need our excellent consultation, kindly contact Billy LAx and he will put you in touch with me.