With Price of a Dream, Itima lives forever

US-based filmmaker, Kevin Itima, who was honoured his late father, Captain Romeo Itima, with a documentary film, sheds light on the beginnings of the company, Global West Vessel Specialists Limited

THOUGH he passed on in 2012, the founder and pioneer Managing Director of Global West Vessel Specialists Limited (GWVSL), Captain Romeo Itima, is not forgotten.

Motivated by the desire to properly chronicle the late sailor’s contributions to the development and safety of Nigeria’s maritime sector, and to show that the negativity surrounding his company [GWVSL] was not there at inception, one of his children, US-based producer and filmmaker, Kevin Itima, has produced a documentary film in his honour.

Entitled The Price of a Dream, it was premiered at Funplex Event Centre, Lagos on June 7 and pays tributes to West Africa’s first ever captain in the Gulf of Mexico.

Expectedly biographical, the documentary traces Itima’s roots in Gbaramotu, Delta State and how he went in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece in the US.  Being from the Niger Delta, the late sailor unsurprisingly pursued a career in the merchant marine industry and later emerged as one of the first few African captains.

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In 2006, the late Itima resolved to use his over 30 years’ experience of the international maritime sector to create opportunities for his country and community.  He established GWVSL, a private maritime security company in 2009 to combat piracy and other associated crimes plaguing Nigeria’s waterways. The company, fashioned along the US Coast Guards, partnered with the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to police Nigerian waterways.

Sadly, Captain Itima was killed at Escravos, Delta State on August 7, 2012 while pursuing some pirates. His vessel was grounded on a rock but he fell and drowned after the boat became unstuck. To members of his immediate family however, his death was suspicious, especially given that there was no water in his lungs when an autopsy was performed days after his corpse was retrieved from the Atlantic.

Apart from expressing the family’s suspicions about his death officially classified as drowning, the documentary also raises posers about the present status of GWVSL, currently being prosecuted alongside others by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for fraud. The film explicitly made it clear that Itima had honest intentions when establishing the company and that whatever alleged illegalities were committed by GWVSL took place after the Captain’s death. The documentary further shows that the immediate Itima family, has had no hand in the running of the company since the Captain’s demise.

Speaking after the premiere, executive producer, Kevin reiterated that he produced the documentary to honour his father and for the sacrifices he made towards ensuring the security of Nigeria’s waterways.

He said: “To dad, establishing the company was his way of contributing to salvaging Nigeria’s maritime security sector, using his wealth of experience as a master mariner from the United States”

The producer said that he encountered several challenges, including logistics, limited time and resources, unfavourable weather condition and difficulty in getting needed information while making the film.

“Logistics was a major problem for us in Nigeria; finding appropriate places to shoot from. For example, in Apongbon market, Lagos, we were harassed and stopped from filming, so we had to pay the shop owner of a four-level building to be able to shoot the main scene in the market from his roof.

“The short amount of time we had to spend in Nigeria was also a major challenge. My director and director of photography only had about two weeks to stay in Nigeria and dealing with Lagos traffic limited the number of places we could visit and shoot

“Filming on the river in Escravos was also very difficult. The waves made it hard to steady the camera and film landscape.

“The biggest challenge however was getting information about my father’s company. It seemed that the upper management did not really want to be part of the film. So, getting figures and facts was a problem. I could only get certain information off the record and off camera.”

The film, he added, is already available online and will be screened at documentary film festivals in Nigeria and across the world.