CNN African Voices Profiles Jeta Amata Seasoned Nollywood Director

African Voices, a weekly programme that examines the diversity, dynamism, and global influence of Africa’s peoples and cultures and highlights Africa's most engaging personalities on the continent and in the diaspora will be profiling one of Nigeria’s popular film Directors Jeta Amata.

This week, CNN’s Isha Sesay talks with Amata about his upcoming film and his experience working with major Hollywood and Nollywood film stars.

Jeta Amata comes from a family of well-known Nollywood talent. His grandfather was a prominent writer and actor. Now Jeta Amata is part of the new generation of Nigerian movie-makers committed to telling African stories to a global audience
African Voices caught up with him at a screening for his latest film. It was a big night for the Nigerian film director on the red carpet at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, last October posing for the cameras with big name supporters and the film’s stars including Mickey Rourke and Kim Bassinger.

It's the first time Amata has worked with both Hollywood and Nollywood's talent; a cast that includes Mbong Amata, Jeta's wife, his father Fred Amata, Hakeem Kae-Kazim and Enyinna Nwigwe.

"Black November" is a drama about Nigeria’s Niger-Delta region. It’s the world's third largest wetland but decades of oil drilling have turned it into one of the most oil-polluted places on earth.

According to Jeta, "the fact that I am making a film like this and presenting it to people like you means that there is change and means there is a possibility for more change."

Amata further said ‘My grandfather addressed the UN a long time ago. Now I address them with a film. It was so important to me. This is not just a big stride for Nigeria but for Africa as well. We are not just telling our stories, we can finance our stories. We can tell our stories. We can distribute our stories. We can tell our stories with some western actors yes, but everything with our influence’ he said.

The death of Nigerian writer, environmental activist and Nobel peace prize nominee Ken Saro-Wiwa affected Amata greatly and fuelled his decision to tell a part of the story. According to him, “What excites me about stories is the human part. Not necessarily the politics, I know in Black November I touch on politics just a little bit but I’m more concerned about the feelings of the people, about what they have been through and where they are going to" he said.

Jeta Amata is award winning in his own right - known for Nollywood movies such as "The Amazing Grace" - a story about the British slave trader John Newton who wrote the popular hymn known around the world as "Amazing Grace."