尼日利亞裔英國媒體大亨Mo Abudu呼吁，電影公司和流媒體投入真正的資金來講述“非洲和黑人的故事”

Efforts to diversify the global television industry have fallen short, argued Nigerian-British Media Mogul Mo Abudu, CEO of EbonyLife Media, in a keynote on diversity and inclusion at global film and television industry at the MIPCOM Cannes on Tuesday.

尼日利亞裔英國媒體大亨、EbonyLife Media的首席執(zhí)行官莫·阿布杜(音譯)昨天在戛納國際影視展(MIPCOM)上以“全球影視產(chǎn)業(yè)的多樣性和包容性”為主題發(fā)表演講時表示:“全球影視產(chǎn)業(yè)多元化的努力遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠。”

Despite much-ballyhooed D&I attempts by studios and streamers, Abudu said she still sees a startling lack of real diversity on international TV screens.

盡管電影公司和流媒體大肆宣傳D&I，但Abudu說，她仍然看到國際電視屏幕上缺乏真正的多樣性。

“I continue to see very little on television that reflects me as a woman of color,” she said, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter‘s co-editor-in-chief Nekesa Mumbi Moody. “You think over the years there would be a change coming, with every company having a diversity and inclusion department officer. But one wonders why, because the representation just isn’t there. There just needs to be a lot more work done.”

“我在電視上仍然很少看到反映我作為有色人種女性的東西，”她在接受《好萊塢報道》聯(lián)合主編內(nèi)克薩·蒙比·穆迪采訪時說。“你認(rèn)為多年后會有變化，每家公司都會有一個多元化和包容性部門的官員。但有人想知道為什么，因?yàn)闆]有表示。只是需要做更多的工作。”

Abudu, who this year topped The Hollywood Reporter‘s annual list of the Most Powerful Women in Global Entertainment, spoke ahead of the 7th edition of Mipcom’s Diversify TV Awards, the only global honor recognizing the promotion of diversity and inclusion at international media organizations.

Abudu今年在《好萊塢報道》的年度全球娛樂界最具影響力女性榜單上名列前茅，她在第七屆Mipcom多元化電視獎之前發(fā)表了講話，這是唯一一個表彰國際媒體組織促進(jìn)多元化和包容性的全球榮譽(yù)。

But despite her success — EbonyLife Media into one of Africa’s leading production companies and Abudu has productions in development with the likes of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Studios, Will Packer Productions, and Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures — Abudu says that when speaking to them, she still finds it a major struggle to find support and backing from commissioners and other gatekeepers.

但是，盡管她取得了成功——烏木生命傳媒成為非洲領(lǐng)先的制作公司之一，阿杜也與威爾和賈達(dá)·平克特·史密斯的威斯布魯克工作室、威爾·帕克制作公司和伊德里斯·艾爾巴的綠門影業(yè)等公司合作制作電影——阿杜說，當(dāng)她與他們交談時，她仍然發(fā)現(xiàn)要從委員會和其他守門員那里獲得支持和支持是一件很困難的事情。

“It’s almost as if they’ve got a reading list of responses as to why they’re not going to back your show,” said Abudu. “The biggest challenge is actually getting through to the gatekeepers and to the commissioners because ultimately, they’re the ones that decide what ends up on our TV screens, and they have [apparently] decided, that people like me shouldn’t be represented on television. [How many] Black or African global shows are there, in terms of [having] the global budgets to compete? [You can’t] make a show at $1 million an episode and another at $10 million an episode and expect the former to compete with the latter. I think the industry maybe hasn’t caught up.”

Abudu說:“這就好像他們有一個閱讀清單，上面寫著為什么他們不會支持你的節(jié)目。”“最大的挑戰(zhàn)實(shí)際上是與看門人和委員溝通，因?yàn)樽罱K是他們決定電視屏幕上的內(nèi)容，他們(顯然)已經(jīng)決定，像我這樣的人不應(yīng)該出現(xiàn)在電視上。”就全球預(yù)算而言，有多少黑人或非洲的全球演出可以與之競爭?(你不能)以每集100萬美元的成本制作一部劇，而以每集1000萬美元的成本制作另一部劇，還指望前者能與后者競爭。我認(rèn)為這個行業(yè)可能還沒有跟上。”

Abudu laid out the business case for investing in African stories, noting that there are “currently 4 billion people in Africa” and that, by the year 2050 “one in four people in the world is going to be African. The median age on our continent is 19. We have the youngest population on earth and they need to see concepts that speaks to them. There is a market there. This is not a charity case.”

Abudu列出了投資非洲故事的商業(yè)案例，指出“目前非洲有40億人口”，到2050年“世界上四分之一的人口將是非洲人”。非洲大陸的平均年齡是19歲。我們擁有地球上最年輕的人口，他們需要看到對他們說話的概念。那里有一個市場。這不是慈善案件。”

Abudu noted the global success of shows like the Nigerian thriller The Black Book, which topped Netflix’s global charts following its Sept. 22 release, as a sign that the world may be waking up to the entertainment potential in Africa.

Abudu指出，尼日利亞驚悚片《the Black Book》等電視劇在全球取得了成功，并在9月22日上映后登上了Netflix全球榜單的榜首，這表明世界可能正在意識到非洲的娛樂潛力。

“It tells you that our stories can travel,” she noted. “We saw, with the success of Squid Game, how Korean content is taking the world by storm. African content is beginning to do the same. So I wonder if the commissioners are just choosing what they want [to see] or what the audience actually wants?”

“它告訴你，我們的故事可以傳播，”她說。“我們看到了《Squid Game》的成功，韓國內(nèi)容正在席卷全球。非洲內(nèi)容也開始這樣做。所以我想知道委員們是在選擇他們想看的還是觀眾真正想看的?”