Nollywood Watch

Nollywood Watch is here as your ‘Eyes on Nollywood’, we will be watching over all the celebrities, fashions, lifestyles and most importantly the movies as they premiere and show in cinemas near you.

All About:

The cinema of Nigeria is a developing industry that has become increasingly productive in recent years. Although Nigerian films have been produced since the 1960s, the rise of digital cinema has resulted in a growing video film industry. The Nigerian video feature film industry is sometimes colloquially known as Nollywood. The term is of uncertain date and origin, but is derived from Hollywood in the same manner as Bollywood. According to Hala Gorani and Jeff Koinange formerly of CNN, Nigeria has a multi-billion dollar movie industry, churning out some 200 “home videos” every month to become the third largest in the world after the United States and India [1]. Many foreign and local critics have criticized Nollywood for its trite plots, poor dialogue, terrible sound, and poor production values. Some worry that the prevalence of witchcraft and violence in the movies may encourage negative stereotypes about Africans. In just 13 years, Nollywood has grown from nothing into an industry that employs thousands of people.

History:

The first Nigerian films were made by filmmakers such as Ola Balogun and Hubert Ogunde in the 1960s, but they were frustrated by the high cost of film production^[1]. However, television broadcasting in Nigeria began in the 1960s and received much government support in its early years. By the mid-1980s every state had its own broadcasting station. Law limited foreign television content so producers in Lagos began televising local popular theater productions. Many of these were circulated on video as well, and a small scale informal video movie trade developed. Nigerian film is thus a video movie industry; Nigerians call them ‘home videos’. There is some debate concerning what caused this small local market in videos to explode into a booming industry that has pushed foreign media off the shelves in much of Africa and is now marketed all over the world. Use of English rather than local languages served to expand the market. Aggressive marketing using posters, trailers, and television advertising also played a role in Nollywood’s success. Many point to the 1992 release of Living in Bondage, a film about a businessman whose dealings with a money cult result in the death of his wife, as the industry’s first blockbuster. Since then, thousands of movies have been released. One of the first Nigerian movie to reach international fame was the 2003 release Osuofia In London, starring Nkem Owoh, the famous Nigerian comedic actor. Modern Nigerian cinema’s most prolific auteur is Chico Ejiro, who directed over 80 films in a 5-year period and brags that he can complete production on a movie in as little as three days. Ejiro’s brother Zeb is the best-known director of these videos outside of the country.

The first Nollywood films were produced with traditional analog video, such as Betacam SP, but today all Nollywood movies are produced using digital video technology. Only recently, Time magazine published an article rating the industry as the third-largest after Hollywood and Bollywood.

Wecome to Nollywood:

Welcome to Nollywood is an hour documentary that explores the phenomenon that is the Nigerian film industry. Nollywood has become a burgeoning industry that has been
twenty years in the making and only recently has it been recognized by the West. Nollywood movies captivate viewers with stories of everyday life in Nigeria.

The Clip: