Her journey as a filmmaker started at BBC Media Action, where she worked as a sound recordist, video editor, and camera operator. She directed her first short film, ‘Tip of the Edge,’ in 2019. Since then, Azeez has made two other short films and a feature film, ‘It Blooms in June.’
Azeez’s sci-fi and fantasy film follows a young girl from an isolated Fulani village who unknowingly elopes with an AI to prevent an arranged marriage. Produced by Kenneth Gyang, it stars Habiba Ummi Mohammed and Adam Garba.
Prior to being part of Netflix’s latest offering to Africa, she had been on a four-year journey telling stories that put the uniqueness of African women on screen.
In this Pulse interview, the filmmaker talks about her film Halima Choice and her journey to putting the work out.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Korede, congratulations on the premiere of your film, ‘Halima’s Choice.’ It was an entertaining one for me. So, walk me through the process of becoming a filmmaker to making this film.
It’s been about four years since 2019, I believe. So, I guess I’m still relatively young in the industry, and when I even started, it was almost like a hobby. You know, I knew that I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I was sort of testing the waters. It didn’t get very serious until 2020 or 2021, when I was selected as one of 10 directors by Native Filmworks.
When I first saw the call for the anthology, I wasn’t even going to submit anything because it was Netflix and many people would be applying. But my husband encouraged me to eventually, and I did. I wasn’t really expecting to hear anything from them, so I sort of just put all of my, you know, crazy ideas in there and just submitted.
I wasn’t expecting to hear back from them when I did, but of course I did, and it was very exciting. Very exciting. When I got the first email that I was selected as part of the 21 filmmakers and that we were going to be sponsored to pitch in South Africa, I was ecstatic. I think that was probably the biggest thing I’ve ever applied for and gotten. Because you apply for so many things and they never come. So, yeah, lots of excitement. But then came the pitch sessions in South Africa. Netflix helped organise a sort of class to show us or teach us how to pitch to Netflix. So they were of great help.
It was a very tough process, to be honest. Again, even though I have a little bit of experience with public speaking, it’s always very nerve-wracking. You know, speaking in front of people, especially when you’re trying to pitch. But yeah, I put my pitch together, rehearsed it, and rehearsed it. And even though I was very nervous at the start, I managed to deliver a good pitch. The initial response I got from the judges was very positive. So that was a relief, even though they grinded me with a lot of questions and everything, I still got a general good vibe from all of that. I mean, I had to wait for another painful month before hearing back. But yeah. I am still incredibly grateful that I was selected.
What was your process like directing the film?
I wrote the film myself. So I think directing probably started on the page while I was writing, but after the writing process was done. I like to see everything I’m doing on paper. So I created a treatment (a director’s treatment) for all of the departments. Then I created individual ones for all of the different departments—costume, production designs, photography, music, everything—and then I created separate, more detailed treatments for everyone, as well as those documents that I used to communicate with different teams. Even the VFX teams, and then we looked at these documents and had conversations.
So, those documents were basically to put my ideas together, my initial ideas, and then, as time went on, I would tweak and tweak and tweak. I had a couple of films that I watched a few times and tried to study, which influenced how I would approach the film. for example, Atlantics by Mati Diop. It was one of the major influences; the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror was another one. Hyenas by Mambéty was another one.
So, yeah, and I like to be very collaborative, especially with my key department heads. See my director of photography, production designer, and costume designer? All these people, even before we went on set during the pre-production period, I was chatting with them. You know, we were sharing ideas. I was just trying to make sure that we’re all on the same page. For the actors, I insisted on having a couple of days with them before we ever got on set. I had the intention of focusing on the crew and everything that has to do with the crew until about two or three days before the shoot, and those two or three days will just be the actors and me.
Your film features some new faces; what was the process of getting them and working with them like?
Throughout, they were absolutely delightful to work with. We had such an amazing relationship on set. But it was hard to find actors because we had done an open call. At first, we looked at the actors that we could pull from our network, but I really wasn’t finding what I needed. But then, a few weeks before the end of preproduction, someone suggested, ‘Oh, how about Habiba?’ She was actually in the Amina by Izu Ojukwu. So I went to check again, and then we asked her to send in an audition tape.
And of all the people we had seen so far, she seemed like she could be our Halima, the same thing as with Adam, who played Umar. A friend asked me to check him out in a movie. I can’t remember the title, but I saw the movie, asked him to send in an audition tape, and the minute I saw his tape, he just seemed like he’d be the right fit for the role.
There’s no point in picking an actor that you would have trouble directing or working with; it’s really not worth it. So sometimes, so often, it’s just different things that come together. First, they need to feel and look like the character, specifically because it’s a Fulani community. You’re not going to have a character that looks Yoruba, even if everything else works.
What was the vision for you as you told the story? What benchmark or mark were you trying to make, either artistically, business-wise, or even in terms of value in the Nigerian film industry?
Honestly, it felt like an opportunity. To tell a story that I otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to tell. I mean, I keep thinking that, given the commercial landscape, not many people want to take the risk on the kind of story that I went for.
I’ve always loved sci-fi and fantasy, and I just have crazy ideas like that, so I figured, okay, this seems like it. Since they are asking me to reimagine a folktale, it means the limits are up to me, basically, and it didn’t feel like there would be any pressure to create a commercially valuable project. So, I mean, the appeal for me was okay; I can almost go to any length with my ideas.
What was the most difficult thing that happened on set?
Let me see. I think of one night when we were filming the night scene. In fact, when I was writing the scene, I knew it was long. So, on set, we had to shoot everything in one night due to, you know, a couple of reasons we didn’t start the shoot as early as I had hoped we would. And then there was a storm coming. You know, we were trying to beat time. It was crazy. I’ve never shot that fast in my entire life.
There were issues like: Oh, we can’t get the exact lights that we needed to create the look I wanted. Oh, the lights that we have now have limitations on where we can place them; generators affect sound, and blah blah; it was just chaos, and then just after the end of the shoot. The rain came with the avengers. Not those types that start slowly like a drizzle. Like the thing, it just came very heavy, and then we had to run with equipment. We had to cross a stream with equipment and run from inside the bush. It was crazy. It was very hard, but yeah. We pulled through.
The ending of the film posed as an easter egg that could be metaphorical for many things, was that intentional?
Well, to be honest, it’s open for interpretation. It’s not exactly how it ended originally on the script, but by the time we go to the edit stage, that always happens, you just see something else that’s interesting, and you decide to go with that. But the message has always been that it’s not about what Halima chooses; it’s about her right to choose. You know, and I was hoping that that ending would convey that.
Could you please tell me how it originally ended?
No, I’m keeping that one to myself.
How have the reviews of the film been so far? any negative ones?
The thing is that, as a filmmaker, when you’re done with your film, you tend to always see all the things that you could have done better. I was very worried. I was anxious about the reception it would get because, first of all, I didn’t know if people would get it. I was worried that maybe I had tried to do too much. So it was a bit of a relief when I got the first couple of comments, which were good.
Also, I’ve read some negative feedback. The thing about most of them is they pointed out issues that I already had sleepless nights over. So at that point, it was like, okay, I know the issues I have with the film personally. So, when I’m listening to feedback, I’m more curious to hear about the stuff that I don’t even know about.
You mentioned that your interests tend towards sci-fi fiction adventures; does that mean you plan to focus exclusively on this genre?
Oh no, I mean, I’m already working on a future film that’s a straight drama. Let’s just look at the markets, I don’t think it’s ready for, you know, a lot of high-concept sci-fi and fantasy. Who is going to give me money? And besides, I really do have interest in other things: rom-coms, crime dramas, dramas; I think even action at times; maybe horror; I mean, I think filmmaking is pretty interesting. I want to try different things, you know, and just go as my spirit leads. One of the things I might be terrified of touching is comedy, because I think it’s maybe the hardest one to pull off.
Tell me about the feature film you’re working on.
So, it’s a film about a young widow who’s trying to rediscover herself; basically, that’s as much as I can say right now.
‘Halima’s Choice, one of the six short films in ‘African Folktales, Reimagined’, is currently streaming on Netflix.
Enjoy the trailer to the anthology here:
