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Omole Philip Bobby, Saloum Sheriff Janko on 25 September, 2009 12:40:00 Gambia’s dream of building a vibrant and sustainable movie industry has received a major boost from stakeholders of Nigeria and Ghana’s movie industry, who are currently in the country to shoot new movies. Gambia’s dream of building a vibrant and sustainable movie industry has received a major boost from stakeholders of Nigeria and Ghana’s movie industry, who are currently in the country to shoot new movies. This revelation was made by the crew of T-Plus, a Nollywood production outfit led by Tom Oviawe Obaseki, during a press conference held at the Paradise Suites Hotel, Kololi yesterday. The press conference was aimed at sensitizing the media on the premiere of a new Pan-African movie titled Spirit of Africa to be hosted on Saturday. While welcoming journalists to the briefing, Pastor Sunday Olanipekun of War Room, The Gambia -who is a major partner in the project-, said the idea of having the premiere of Spirit of Africa in The Gambia was to give Gambians the privilege of being the first to see a movie which is centered on Pan-Africanism. He said the premiere of the movie in the country is strategic because the Gambian leader, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhagie Dr Yahya AJJ Jammeh believes so much in the African dream and champions the cause of pan-Africanism. According to him, since the movie tows the line of the redemption of Africans from slavery, it is thus pertinent that Gambians get the privilege of seeing it first. He described the project as a ‘Gambia thing’ calling on Gambians for support, since some of the actors in the movie like Desmond Elliot have a huge fan base in the country. The producer of the movie, Tom Ovawie Obaseki, in his remarks said the T-Plus crew has come to The Gambia to stay for good and also to promote the Gambian movie industry. He said they just finished shooting a movie titled Wrong Identity with over 90 percent Gambian cast and they will begin the shooting of the second movie today (Friday) titled Gambian Holiday. Tom said the crew’s choice of The Gambia as the next location, is to showcase the human and tourism potentials in the country, adding that they had done similar projects in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra-Leone. Also speaking at the briefing was Nollywood’s Desmond Elliot, the lead actor of the movie billed for premiere. He described himself as a pan-Africanist who believes that Africa should be one. He said movies are good for a country’s image because the people can use it as a medium to pass messages of their identity to the world. According to him, the involvement of Gollywood in the upcoming movies is a good move as the fusion of Nigerian, Ghanaian and Gambian actors will bring the best out of Africa. The Spirit of Africa premiere is billed to hold tomorrow at the Jerma Beach hotel, Senegambia.