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ENG 335 - Class Notes
English 335 - Postwar Global Film
Class Notes - 2008.04.24
Nollywood - Nigerian Poplar Cinema industry
The world's 3rd largest motion picture producing industry (after Hollywood & Bollywood)
It is entirely a video-producing industry
Produces 500-1000 feature films a year, all straight to video
$250 Million/year industry
Nigeria background:
* 3 cultures pre-colonization:
- Ibo people in the East
- Yoruba people in the West
- Sokoto Caliphate in the North
* Ruled for many years by a British Company administered by Sir George Goldie
* 1898 Britain buys out Goldie's company
* 1960 Nigeria gains independence
* Military rule for 30 years
* 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo elected in "unfree" elections
About Nollywood
- Started with TV broadcasting in the 1960s.
- The Government limits foreign TV content.
- In the past 13 years, Nollywood has grown to the world's 3rd largest producer of feature films
- Up to 30 new titles are produced each week
- Films go straight to video
- Local stores carry the videos for $2/each
- Average production takes 10 days and costs $15,000
- Stars are all native Nigerians
- Productions often face local thugs and must pay extortion in order to film
Some broad generalizations about Nollywood films:
- Plots rarely leave Nigeria
- Plots are often dialogue-centric
- Minimal camera angles -- cinematography is more "photographic"
- Very grounded in real African life (AIDS, corruption, women's rights, cults/religion)
Reasons for Nollywood's growth & success:
- Crime wave in the 1980s/1990s, most theatres shut down. People prefer to stay in at night and watch video.
- Strong Nigerian entrepreneurial culture
- Videos are cheap and easy to make, easy to distribute
- Nollywood films are on TV all over Africa (often broadcast with sound turned down, translation overdub)
- Huge potential for non-natural resource-based development
- There is no significant support or interference from Nigeria's government
- Free reign, sense of autonomy
- Product of the popular market -- what people want, they get
Issues with Nollywood:
- Dangerous filming
* Director Izu Ojukwu is known for unsafe filming practices
* Extortion by local thugs
- Size issues
* Nollywood grew very fast
* Disorganized
- Overpowering the market
* Ghana had a modest but thriving film scene, but Nigeria's success has put much of Ghana's film industry out of business
Potential downfalls:
- Tendencies toward Hollywood value system
- A single power setting standards
- Cultural simplification (Nigerian POV only)
Class Notes - 2008.04.24
Nollywood - Nigerian Poplar Cinema industry
The world's 3rd largest motion picture producing industry (after Hollywood & Bollywood)
It is entirely a video-producing industry
Produces 500-1000 feature films a year, all straight to video
$250 Million/year industry
Nigeria background:
* 3 cultures pre-colonization:
- Ibo people in the East
- Yoruba people in the West
- Sokoto Caliphate in the North
* Ruled for many years by a British Company administered by Sir George Goldie
* 1898 Britain buys out Goldie's company
* 1960 Nigeria gains independence
* Military rule for 30 years
* 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo elected in "unfree" elections
About Nollywood
- Started with TV broadcasting in the 1960s.
- The Government limits foreign TV content.
- In the past 13 years, Nollywood has grown to the world's 3rd largest producer of feature films
- Up to 30 new titles are produced each week
- Films go straight to video
- Local stores carry the videos for $2/each
- Average production takes 10 days and costs $15,000
- Stars are all native Nigerians
- Productions often face local thugs and must pay extortion in order to film
Some broad generalizations about Nollywood films:
- Plots rarely leave Nigeria
- Plots are often dialogue-centric
- Minimal camera angles -- cinematography is more "photographic"
- Very grounded in real African life (AIDS, corruption, women's rights, cults/religion)
Reasons for Nollywood's growth & success:
- Crime wave in the 1980s/1990s, most theatres shut down. People prefer to stay in at night and watch video.
- Strong Nigerian entrepreneurial culture
- Videos are cheap and easy to make, easy to distribute
- Nollywood films are on TV all over Africa (often broadcast with sound turned down, translation overdub)
- Huge potential for non-natural resource-based development
- There is no significant support or interference from Nigeria's government
- Free reign, sense of autonomy
- Product of the popular market -- what people want, they get
Issues with Nollywood:
- Dangerous filming
* Director Izu Ojukwu is known for unsafe filming practices
* Extortion by local thugs
- Size issues
* Nollywood grew very fast
* Disorganized
- Overpowering the market
* Ghana had a modest but thriving film scene, but Nigeria's success has put much of Ghana's film industry out of business
Potential downfalls:
- Tendencies toward Hollywood value system
- A single power setting standards
- Cultural simplification (Nigerian POV only)
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