Africa

Historically, Hindi films have been distributed to some parts of Africa, largely by Lebanese businessmen. Mother India (1957), for example, continued to be played in Nigeria decades after its release. Indian movies have also gained ground so as to alter the style of Hausa fashions, songs have also been copied by Hausa singers and stories have influenced the writings of Nigerian novelists. Stickers of Indian films and stars decorate taxis and buses in Northern Nigeria, while posters of Indian films adorn the walls of tailor shops and mechanics' garages in the country. Unlike in Europe and North America where Indian films largely cater to the expatriate Indian market yearning to keep in touch with their homeland, in West Africa, as in many other parts of the world, such movies rose in popularity despite the lack of a significant Indian audience, where movies are about an alien culture, based on a religion wholly different, and, for the most part, a language that is unintelligble to the viewers. One such explanation for this lied in the similarities between the two cultures. Other similarities include wearing turbans; the presence of animals in markets; porters carrying large bundles, chewing sugar cane; youths riding Bajaj motor scooters; wedding celebrations, and so forth. With the strict Muslim culture, Indian movies were said to show "respect" toward women, where Hollywood movies were seen to have "no shame". In Indian movies women were modestly dressed, men and women rarely kiss, and there is no nudity, thus Indian movies are said to "have culture" that Hollywood films lack. The latter choice was a failure because "they don't base themselves on the problems of the people," where the former is based socialist values and on the reality of developing countries emerging from years of colonialism. Indian movies also allowed for a new youth culture to follow without such ideological baggage as "becoming western."[69] Bollywood is also popular among Somalis and the Somali diaspora, where the emerging Islamic Courts Union found a bete noire.
[86]

Chad and Ethiopia have also shown an interest in the movies.[87]

Several Bollywood personalities have avenued to the continent for both shooting movies and off-camera projects. The film Padmashree Laloo Prasad Yadav (2005) was one of many movies shot in South Africa.[88] Dil Jo Bhi Kahey (2005) was shot almost entirely in Mauritius, which has a large ethnically Indian population. Ominously, however, the popularity of old Bollywood versus a new, changing Bollywood seems to be diminishing the popularity on the continent. The changing style of Bollywood has begun to question such an acceptance. The new era features more sexually explicit and violent films. Nigerian viewers, for example, commented that older films of the 1950s and 1960s had culture to the newer, more westernized picturizations.[69] The old days of India avidly "advocating decolonization ... and India's policy was wholly influenced by his missionary zeal to end racial domination and discrimination in the African territories" were replaced by newer realities.[89] The emergence of Nollywood, Africa's local movie industry has also contributed to the declining popularity of Bollywood films. A greater globalised world worked in tandem with the sexualisation of Indian films so as to become more like American films, thus negating the preferred values of an old Bollywood and diminishing Indian soft power.
^ a b c "www.samarmagazine.org/archive/article.php?id=21".

Cinema of Nigeria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The cinema of Nigeria is a nascent film industry in Nigeria, growing quickly in the 1990s and 2000s to become the second largest film industry in the world in terms of number of films produced per year, ahead of the United States but behind the Indian film industries.[1] According to Hala Gorani and Jeff Koinange formerly of CNN, Nigeria has a US$250 million movie industry, churning out some 200 videos for the home video market every month.[2]
[3]

Nigerian cinema is Africa's largest movie industry in terms of the value of the movie industry and the number of movies produced per year. Although Nigerian films have been produced since the 1960s, the rise of affordable digital filming and editing technologies has stimulated the country's video film industry. The Nigerian video feature film industry is sometimes colloquially known as Nollywood, having been derived as a play on Hollywood in the same manner as Bollywood.
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Production 3 Distribution 4 Themes 5 Portrayal in the Western media 6 Nigerian films 7 Notable actors 8 See also 9 References

10 External links

[edit]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.[4] However, television broadcasting in Nigeria began in the 1960s and received much government support in its early years. By the mid1980s 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. The release of the box-office movie Living in Bondage in 1992 by NEK Video Links owned by Kenneth Nnebue in the eastern city of Onitsha set the stage for Nollywood as it is known today. The story goes that Kenneth Nnebue had an excess number of imported video cassettes which he then used to shoot the first film.[5] The huge success of this film set the pace for others to produce other films or home videos. Through the business instincts and ethnic links of the Igbos and their dominance of distribution in major cities across Nigeria, home videos began to reach people across the country. Nollywood exploded into a booming industry that pushed foreign media off the shelves, an industry now marketed all over Africa and the rest of the world.[6] The use of English rather than local languages served to expand the market and aggressive marketing using posters, trailers, and television advertising also played a role in Nollywood's success. Since then, thousands of movies have been released. One of the first Nigerian movies to reach international renown was the 2003 release Osuofia in London, starring Nkem Owoh, the famous Nigerian comedic actor. Modern Nigerian cinemas most prolific auteur is Chico Ejiro, who directed over 80 films in an 8-year period and brags that he can complete production on a movie in as little as three days.[7] Ejiros 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. A March 2006 article in The Guardian cited Nigeria's film industry as the third largest in the world in terms of earnings and estimated the industry to bring in US$200 million per year.[8] In 2009, Unesco described Nollywood as being the second-biggest film industry in the world after Bollywood in terms of output and called for greater support for the industry, which is the second-largest employer in Nigeria.[9] [edit]Production

Most movies are not produced in studios. Video movies are shot on location all over Nigeria with hotels, homes, and offices often rented out by their owners and appearing in credits in the movies. The most popular locations are shot in the cities of Lagos, Enugu, and Abuja. However, distinct regional variations appear between the northern movies made primarily in the Hausa language, the western Yoruba-language movies, the Edo-language movies shot in Benin city, and the Igbo movies shot in the southeast. Many of the big producers have offices in Surulere, Lagos. Nigerian directors adopt new technologies as soon as they become affordable. Bulky videotape cameras gave way to their digital descendents, which are now being replaced by HD cameras. Editing, music, and other post-production work are done with common computer-based systems. [edit]Distribution

The primary distribution centers are Idumota Market on Lagos Island, and 51 Iweka Road in Onitsha in Anambra State. Currently, Nigerian films outsell Hollywood films in Nigeria and many other African countries. Some 300 producers turn out movies at an astonishing ratesomewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 a year. The films go straight to DVD and VCD discs. Thirty new titles are delivered to Nigerian shops and market stalls every week, where an average film sells 50,000 copies. A hit may sell several hundred thousand. Discs sell for two dollars each, making them affordable for most Nigerians and providing astounding returns for the producers. Most of the films are produced by independent by companies and businessmen. However, the big money for films in Nigeria is made in the direct-tovideo market. The average film costs between US$17,000 and US$23,000, is shot on video in just a weekselling up to 150,000200,000 units nationwide in one day. With this type of return, more and more are getting into the film business there. By most reports, Nollywood is a $500-million industry. And it keeps growing. According to Frank Ikegwuonu, author of Who's Who in Nollywood www.nigeriaentertainment.com, about "1,200 films are produced in Nigeria annually." And more and more filmmakers are heading to Nigeria because of "competitive distribution system and a cheap workforce." Further, Nigerian films seem to be better received by the market when compared to foreign films because "those films are more family oriented than the American films. Nigerian movies are available in even the most remote areas of the continent. The last few years have seen the growing popularity of Ghanaian and Nigerian films among the people of African diaspora in both Europe, North America and The Caribbean. Nigerian films are currently receiving wider distribution as Nigerian producers and directors are attending more internationally acclaimed film festivals. In the USA, viewers can watch Nollywood, Ghanaian and other West African movies on Afrotainment. [edit]Themes

Many Nollywood movies have themes that deal with the moral dilemmas facing modern Africans. Some movies promote the Christian or Islamic faiths, and some movies are overtly evangelical. Others, however, address questions of religious diversity, such as the popular film One God One Nation, about a Muslim man and a Christian woman who want to marry but go through many obstacles. [edit]Portrayal

in the Western media

The 2007 documentary Welcome to Nollywood by director Jamie Meltzer gives an overview of the industry. It pays particular attention to

directors Izu Ojukwu and Chico Ejiro, and acknowledges the unusual, rapid, and enterprising way that most Nollywood films are created as well as their significance and contribution to the greater society.[10]

Franco Sacchi's 2007 documentary This Is Nollywood follows the production of Check Point, directed by Bond Emeruwa. It features

interviews with Nigerian filmmakers and actors as they discuss their industry, defend the types of films they make and detail the kind of impact they can have.[11] In 2007, Franco Sacchi presented the film on Nollywood at the TED conference.[12]

The 2007 Danish documentary Good Copy Bad Copy features a substantial section on Nigerian cinema. It focuses on the direct-to-DVD

distribution of most Nigerian movies, as well as the industry's reliance on off-the-shelf video editing equipment as opposed to the more costly traditional film process.[13]

A 2008 Canadian documentary Nollywood Babylon was co-directed by Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal, and produced by AM Pictures

and National Film Board of Canada in association with the Documentary Channel. It played in the Official Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009.[14] [edit]Nigerian

films