American movies are known for hope, an overwhelming degree of hope, and life. It is particularly how the stories are arranged logically to appeal to emotions and sense of reason at the same time—especially at the same time. These movies have various themes they work with: hard work, love, living and thriving, hope, faith, race and generally the journey through life.
As one of the many film export consumers, I love these movies. I love them because I enjoy their wit, glamour, sense of justice and the lease to live. On many occasions, I have daydreamt about how my life would play out—if it ever could—on the American ‘silver screen’: the actor who would play my life’s tale; the screenwriter who would have the job of documenting my actions in a believable way to appeal to a general audience but the part of this ‘future’ movie that I am most concerned about is who would be play the man I marry—the one I would have children with. My imagination doesn’t do me well on this one. Well, the reasons are that I first wonder who I am likely to become in the future. ‘The future’ was a phrase I used a lot whilst growing up and in many ways, the future ‘is’ still what I use now. Yes, of course, there is the heightened feeling of remaining forever young that sort of causes me to want to keep regarding to this time as ‘the future’; maybe, it is a way to psych myself into believing that I am not getting older. I don’t know which but what I do know is that I still regard to the future as another time, another sphere of my human existence that cannot come close to my ‘now’ because I don’t want it to.
Back to the movie, I am so interested in this ‘man’ character because I imagine that this figure would be central to a lot of my dreams as I his and I expect that he would be that very lovable person, angry when he wants me to listen to him intently and knowledgeable on my levels. I expect that he would possess those rare but approachable gifts that make him close to God in my life but near to home in my heart. He would be a wonder not just a wonderful person but he would be wonder personified.
So, this future American production would have our lives as central characters, I hope at the end they are able to learn about true love, real life, hard work, friendship and the many other things that my life is about. I hope this movie would teach the importance of having God as a friend and having his as the centre of it all. I hope with all of my heart that this movie teaches about what family is in Africa; how it is important to me, to my ‘man’ and our children. But most importantly, I hope the movie teaches that people change and they should because life gets better or worse depending on what we choose and it’s our fault sometimes, and it’s not our fault other times but either way, you get the blame for whatever happens to you because it is your life and your life bears your name.
One day, there would be a movie about me and my ‘man’; it’s going to make me blush all over.
TARE ABANG 