Nollywood Now: Nigeria Makes More Movies Than Hollywood — And They're Getting Good
NIGERIAN FILM RISES:
Nollywood churns out more movies than Hollywood and Bollywood, and is
rapidly producing its own homegrown stars such as Genevieve Nnaji and
Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, who are crossing over to the international
stage. How long before Hollywood makes the leap in the other direction?
THE WORLD’S BIGGEST English-language
film industry is not Hollywood or Bollywood, but Nollywood. Nigeria’s
low budget, high output movie-making machine generates in excess of $500
million a year, employs over a million people, and churns out more than
1,000 films a year — the vast majority of which go straight to
television and DVD across the continent.
NOLLYWOOD GENESIS
Nollywood originally exploded onto the film landscape less than 20 years ago from the bustling streets of Lagos, Nigeria. Like the Wild West, its pioneers were traders and bootleggers; they started out selling pirated copies of Hollywood movies before graduating into producing their own titles as an inexpensive way to procure more content for a burgeoning market. The traders finance the films, (the average budget is between £15,000 and £30,000), then sell copies in bulk to local operators, who then distribute them for sale in markets, shops and street-corners, for as little as £2 ($3.00) each. The financial equation is heavily problematic, with endemic piracy and issues over copyright and a lack of legally binding contracts.
TOO MUCH TOO FAST
But Nollywood’s biggest problem is the fact that the films themselves are not very good. They are presented within a fuzzy, low budget aesthetic in which histrionic acting combines with often ludicrous plotlines. The films drown in melodrama, and many scenes are unintentionally comic. Production values and the rigours of plot and character development are dispensed with in the mad rush to complete and distribute. It’s akin to half-cooking food to feed impatient mouths — and so the results feel like first drafts.
Nevertheless, more importantly for an eager Nigerian audience, Nollywood is producing its own crop of African Halle Berry’s and Denzel Washington’s to serve its rapidly expanding new market, in similar vein to the manner in which India’s Bollywood film industry has established its own movie celebrities such as Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra. Nollywood’s leading lights, actors such as Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde and Jim Iyke, are homegrown heroes imbued with same chaotic creative energy that courses through the bloodstream of the country — and their performances are resonating with Nigerians more than watching Hollywood stars on screen.
NIGERIA NEXT
With the increasing investment and seemingly boundless energy pouring into Nigerian film, it seems only a matter of time before the quality of the output and the contractual difficulties improve enough for Hollywood — and particularly its African Americans — to begin serious collaborations. Actor Danny Glover has already shown up at some Nigerian film award events, and certainly, for established movie directors such as Spike Lee — who has taken to auditioning his latest film project on a crowd funding website — Nollywood may provide a much needed, and more welcoming, new outlet to work in.
Learn more about Nigeria’s Nollywood stars in the set of articles opposite, written by Ben Arogundade, author of the best-selling book Black Beauty.
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Nollywood originally exploded onto the film landscape less than 20 years ago from the bustling streets of Lagos, Nigeria. Like the Wild West, its pioneers were traders and bootleggers; they started out selling pirated copies of Hollywood movies before graduating into producing their own titles as an inexpensive way to procure more content for a burgeoning market. The traders finance the films, (the average budget is between £15,000 and £30,000), then sell copies in bulk to local operators, who then distribute them for sale in markets, shops and street-corners, for as little as £2 ($3.00) each. The financial equation is heavily problematic, with endemic piracy and issues over copyright and a lack of legally binding contracts.
TOO MUCH TOO FAST
But Nollywood’s biggest problem is the fact that the films themselves are not very good. They are presented within a fuzzy, low budget aesthetic in which histrionic acting combines with often ludicrous plotlines. The films drown in melodrama, and many scenes are unintentionally comic. Production values and the rigours of plot and character development are dispensed with in the mad rush to complete and distribute. It’s akin to half-cooking food to feed impatient mouths — and so the results feel like first drafts.
Nevertheless, more importantly for an eager Nigerian audience, Nollywood is producing its own crop of African Halle Berry’s and Denzel Washington’s to serve its rapidly expanding new market, in similar vein to the manner in which India’s Bollywood film industry has established its own movie celebrities such as Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra. Nollywood’s leading lights, actors such as Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde and Jim Iyke, are homegrown heroes imbued with same chaotic creative energy that courses through the bloodstream of the country — and their performances are resonating with Nigerians more than watching Hollywood stars on screen.
NIGERIA NEXT
With the increasing investment and seemingly boundless energy pouring into Nigerian film, it seems only a matter of time before the quality of the output and the contractual difficulties improve enough for Hollywood — and particularly its African Americans — to begin serious collaborations. Actor Danny Glover has already shown up at some Nigerian film award events, and certainly, for established movie directors such as Spike Lee — who has taken to auditioning his latest film project on a crowd funding website — Nollywood may provide a much needed, and more welcoming, new outlet to work in.
Learn more about Nigeria’s Nollywood stars in the set of articles opposite, written by Ben Arogundade, author of the best-selling book Black Beauty.
nollywood-now-nigeria-makes-more-movies than hollywood-and they are getting good
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| omotola jalade ekehinde |
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