When Olatokunbo Betiku was growing up he would walk through the local video store and dream of the day that his movies would be on the shelves with all the other VHS tapes.
His dream was slightly off. Today, it would more likely be DVDs or Blu-ray discs. But the rest of it is within reach.
‘‘I wanted to be an animator when I was a little kid,” Betiku said.
Betiku, a 27-year-old Lanham resident, met rapper Master P through a college friend last summer and immediately earned a job as vice president of animation with Take A Stand Animation, a new branch of Master P’s business empire.
Betiku’s and Master P’s first effort, a music video titled ‘‘Black History,” is one of the short films scheduled to be screened during the Heritage Film Festival, which begins Friday at Prince George’s Community College.
It’s the second video of the song ‘‘Black History,” by Master P and his son, Romeo. This one is animated whereas the first was a live-action version. The song tells the story of a student doing a report for Black History Month.
Betiku said that his motivation was to put some of the biggest names in black history out there, but let the children do the research and discover black history on their own.
‘‘I’m not really big on ‘Here’s my way of thinking, here it is, that’s it,’” Betiku said. ‘‘You put [a child] in front of a computer, and you give him Google, they can type in anything. Let’s give them the right keywords to type in. You can tell someone something all day, and they’re never going to get it. But if they learn on their own, it’s stuck in there.”
Betiku said there is a gap in today’s animation between cartoons for young children and the more mature cartoons and anime that is geared for young and older adults. His goal is to help fill that gap with animation for older children that is simultaneously enjoyable and educational.
‘‘That also paralleled with what P wanted,” Betiku said. ‘‘P had been doing a lot of adult things for years. He wanted to appeal to children and be more educational. I want to push more stuff out there for kids.”
The music video was just the first step. Betiku said he’s working on a live-action screenplay for a film based on the Black History music video and also working on a longer animation project for Gee Gee the Giraffe, one of their characters. Betiku also animated the opening of the the Master P film ‘‘Black Supaman.”
Betiku expects to see Gee Gee on the video store shelves in the near future, with his ‘‘Black History” animated music video as one of the DVD extras.
O.F. Makarah, founder and director of the Heritage Film Festival, said there are more than 40 short films scheduled to be shown during the three programs scheduled for this year’s event. Those films were selected from more than 100 submitted.
‘‘We’re growing every year,” Makarah said. ‘‘We’re getting larger audiences and more films. The word is getting out, and the quality of films is improving.”
Included during this year’s program are some films made by elementary school students. That is part of the children’s program scheduled to screen Saturday morning.
No doubt many of those children are walking the aisles of video stores and dreaming of the day they see their films on the shelves.
IF YOU GO
Heritage Film Festival
When: 7 p.m., Friday (opening ceremonies and first screenings); 2 p.m., Saturday (films by children); 7 p.m., Saturday (final screenings, closing ceremonies)
Where: Rennie Forum of the Largo Student Center, Prince George's Community College, 301 Largo Road, Largo.
Admission: Free
Information: 240-374-1405
