Former President of the Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN) and filmmaker Fidelis Duker, was recently presented with an award of excellence for his pioneering effort in the formation of the guild as it was his knack for innovation that gave birth to the annual Abuja Film and Video Festival which has attracted thousands of filmmakers in the diaspora.
The Nollywood veteran who’s been in the movie industry for over 25 years has written scripts for Tales by Moonlight (1988 – 1992), the popular television programme for kids and was a production manager between 1989 and 1991. His first film as producer was Skeleton (1993), an Igbo film that starred the likes of Hanks Anuku and Sam Loco, was followed with many others like Blood Brothers, King of Money, Nemesis, Scandals, Destined to die, Monica Lewinsky, Pure Love, Doctor Death, Rejected, Hot Passion and Night Nurses.
The producer with over 250 Nigerian home videos to his credit once featured in Nemesis (1995) but later left the movie scene as he believed it wasn’t his calling. Afterward, he started a drama series called Images which aired on over 15 stations in the country. He attended a training course in Scotland with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2004 and later – the Deutche Welle Training Academy in Berlin, Germany, in 2005.
Fidelis Duker shares the same birthday with the singer, Djinee (Ego), on May 29 which is barely a month away, and coming up in the same month will be his 18th wedding anniversary. The sleuth of awards and the upcoming celebrations are only the beginnings of many moments of serendipity.
