Sylvia Ebere, Nigerian actor and filmmaker, has urged the Nollywood industry to explore more faith-based stories by utilizing the opportunity that these communities offer in terms of storytelling and audience demographics.
Speaking about her forthcoming project, The Good Therapist, an upcoming faith-based series, Ebere insisted that the religious audience, especially the church community, remains underrepresented and underexplored in Nollywood. “I believe that in Nollywood, the church audience is one audience we have not tapped into enough. We just make films and we don’t have specifics because we chase numbers sometimes.”
According to the filmmaker, the church community often have nothing to meet their entertainment needs. This leaves them to choose from the array of “wonderful” films, as she described them, which often don’t necessarily meet their needs. “I just hope that we can continue to create stories that can shine a light on certain things, inform the audience, and carry them along.”
Sharing the premise of her upcoming 10-episode miniseries, Ebere said The Good Therapist follows Dr. Folu, a therapist who maintains diligence and professionalism despite her private marital crisis. She noted that people might fault Dr. Folu’s composure despite the mental toll of her marital issues. However, the filmmaker pointed out that it was with every client that Dr. Folu realized something about herself and her home.
“The story is relevant because sometimes, we are just passing through, and we don’t realize how much the mind tends to shove away just to keep us sane. That is why mental awareness is very important,” she said. For Ebere, who wore four hats as executive producer, creative producer, writer, and actor on the project, she was able to manage all roles because of her solid team. As a writer, she co-wrote The Good Therapist alongside Uche Mordi, Tolu Akinreti, and Lenora Cassidy.
The actor, known for her roles in We Happy People and Procrastination, wants The Good Therapist to remind audiences about God’s intentions about their prosperity and personal health. “The message is very simple. God’s words say that. I wish above all things that you prosper in your health as your soul prospers. It means that your personal well-being matters to God.”
In addition, Ebere wants the audience who watches her upcoming series to be more expressive about what they feel rather than bottle up emotions. She hopes that they can understand the things within their control and the things that are not. “To love God and love themselves.”