A leading Nigerian actress has been banned from the Hausa-language film industry because of her "immoral" behaviour, the main industry body says.
Rahama Sadau caused offence by "hugging and cuddling" pop star Classiq in a video, it added.
The industry, commonly known as Kannywood, has been under fire from conservative Muslim clerics who accuse it of corrupting people's values.
They regard it as taboo for men and women to hold hands or kiss in public.
Ms Sadau, who is said to be on a holiday in India, has not yet commented on the ban imposed by Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (Moppan).
Its chairman, Muhammadu Kabiru Maikaba, told the BBC Hausa service that the ban was "total".
"This is not the first time that she has been doing these wayward things. We have been warning her, but she still went ahead to dent our image," he said.
The Kannywood star appeared in the video with Classiq, in a song entitled I Love You.
In it, the Nigerian pop star is smitten with a vegetable seller in a market, acted by Ms Sadau.
Initially, she rejects his advances, batting him away with a bunch of vegetables, but he eventually wins her over.
They hold hands and engage in a bit of cuddling that would be considered demure in a Western film.
In a statement, Moppan said it hoped Ms Sadau's expulsion would serve as a deterrent for other actors.
Its code of conduct requires actors to avoid doing anything which violates Islamic and Hausa culture, reports the BBC's Isa Sanusi from the capital, Abuja.
Many people in northern Nigeria felt she had gone too far with Classiq in the music video, he adds.
Classiq cannot be banned because he is not a member of Moppan.
Showing posts with label Nollywood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nollywood. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Nigeria stands out at Toronto film festival
Nigerian filmmakers, producers and actors are hoping a spotlight on Lagos at this year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will open Nollywood up to the world.
But equally important, the filmmakers say, is maintaining the originality and fresh storytelling that has made the well-established Nigerian film industry such a national and regional success over the past two decades.
"Our stories are original. That's what makes us stand out," said Omoni Oboli, the filmmaker, producer and actress, whose movie Okafor's Law had its world premiere at the festival this year.
"I feel like the audiences are bored. Hollywood is churning out the same thing over and over again … We have fresh stories. It's original," Oboli said at a press conference in Toronto. "If they're bored, they should look to us - look to Nollywood."
Oboli's film is among eight Nigerian features being screened as part of the festival's annual City-to-City programme, which shines a light on filmmaking in cities around the world. In previous years, this section has shone a light on Seoul, London, Athens, Mumbai, and Istanbul, among other places.
Cameron Bailey, the film festival's artistic director, told Al Jazeera that he took "a leap of faith" when he made the decision to focus on Lagos this year, but he said he believed the timing was right.
"In addition to the very commercial films that have been coming out of Lagos for many years, there's a new generation that has a new Nollywood cinema that is working at higher budget levels, taking more time with their productions, greater technical quality and also just greater artistic ambition," Bailey said.
"We're beginning to see new kinds of films come out that I think can work very well on the festival circuit and in the rest of the film industry, so that's why I wanted to do it now."
The eight Nigerian films at the festival explore an array of storylines and genres, from the comedic capers of a Lagos cabbie in Daniel Emeke Oriahi's Oko Ashewo (Taxi Driver), to a drama about Lagos' successful battle against an outbreak of Ebola in 93 Days, directed by Steve Gukas.
In 76, Izu Ojukwu looks at the impact of a failed coup attempt in Nigeria in 1976, while director Uduak-Obong Patrick has made a youthful crime-comedy with a Lagos backdrop in Just Not Married.
The Wedding Party, meanwhile, invites audiences in to experience the joy and traditions of a Nigerian wedding - complete with all the drama and complications that may arise.
"What makes a Nigerian wedding party so different? You have to experience it first hand to be able to understand it. It's nothing like you've ever seen before: the colours, the attire, the people … It's a remarkable experience," said director Kemi Adetiba about the film, her first feature.
"The stories I think will resonate with all audiences," Bailey said, "but what you get to learn about, is how the storytellers shape their films in a very distinct way."
$3.3bn industry
The Nigerian film industry is second only to India's Bollywood in terms of the number of films produced, which is estimated at around 200 a month, according to an entertainment and media report by PricewaterhouseCoopers for 2014-2018 (PDF).
In 2014, the Nigerian government estimated that Nollywood was a $3.3bn industry, with 1,844 movies produced in 2013, Fortune magazine reported. The industry brings in $600m to the Nigerian economy annually, according to 2014 figures put out by the US International Trade Commission.
To date, Nigerian films have been cheap to produce and shoots generally last less than a month. "This enables a quick financial turnaround: A movie can be profitable within two to three weeks of release," the PwC report stated.
But most Nigerian films are watched on DVD and pirating is widespread: Nine pirated copies of a film are sold for every legitimate one, according to the World Bank (PDF).
According to Nigerian actress Genevieve Nnaji, who starred in 2013's Half of a Yellow Sun, the higher production values of recent Nigerian films demonstrate that Nollywood is ready for greater international collaborations.
"We need to invite more audience. We need to be more open with even our storylines and with collaborations. Right now, that's kind of the focus, which is why we're glad we're here," she told Al Jazeera at the festival.
Tapping into where the cinemas are is also important to build an audience, the actress said.
Despite having a population of more than 180 million people, Nigeria lacks cinemas: The filmmakers and producers at TIFF put the number of cinemas across Nigeria at 29, meaning the country has a total of only about 100 screens.
Building a global audience
Many in the industry wonder if Nigerian filmmakers should really be focused on appealing to an international audience, rather than making better films to satisfy their already expansive fan base.
According to Niyi Akinmolayan, director of The Arbitration, it is less about seeking validation from the United States or Hollywood, and more so wanting "to make films good enough for anyone anywhere to watch our movies".
"And, hopefully, we'll get some recognition," he said.
The Arbitration is largely set in a meeting room in Lagos, where a woman has accused a Nigerian IT company's chief executive - her former lover and boss - of rape. Though the film is partly a peak into the growing Nigerian hi-tech industry, its main themes - sexual harassment, power dynamics, and gender roles - are universal.
"I felt this is a perfect opportunity to polarise the audience and make them ask important questions. And in this case, we're defining sexual harassment, we're defining rape, we're defining the place of a woman in society … I always feel there's a lot of beauty and truth when you get people to ask questions," Akinmolayan said.
According to film festival's artistic director, Bailey, a desire to reach global audiences while also maintaining the distinctive style that appeals to people at home is something that has been witnessed in the film industries of South Korea, China, India and even France in recent years.
"I think Nigeria can do both," Bailey said. "Not everybody working in Nollywood is going to want, for instance, to try to set up a co-production with an American company or a European company, but some will. And I think the ones that will, will do well with it."
'Storytellers by nature'
David Oyelowo, the Nigerian-British actor who has starred in Hollywood films Selma and Five Nights in Maine, said the TIFF spotlight "is the start of something absolutely fantastic" for Nigerian talent.
"We've been doing this for a long time - telling stories traditionally, filmically, poetically. We are storytellers by nature," Oyelowo said in Toronto, where he is promoting his latest film, Queen of Katwe.
And it is those stories - uniquely Nigerian, but open to the world - that will propel Nollywood forward into its third decade, says young Nigerian director Abba Makama.
Makama was in Toronto to screen Green White Green, a coming-of-age story about three soon-to-be university students who set out to make a film and in the process learn who they are personally and within the mosaic of Nigerian cultures.
Bailey described the film as reminiscent of an early Spike Lee Joint, or even of American director Richard Linklater's work.
"The whole idea came about when I was studying in New York, and I would get the most ignorant questions about where I came from," Makama says. "I said, 'I need to go back home, and I'm going to show them where I'm from, what I'm doing, what I'm all about.'"
"It's my own way to say how much I love film, but I also wanted to give the western audience a crash course on what it means to be Nigerian. There isn't one archetype. There are facets. There are layers."
But equally important, the filmmakers say, is maintaining the originality and fresh storytelling that has made the well-established Nigerian film industry such a national and regional success over the past two decades.
"Our stories are original. That's what makes us stand out," said Omoni Oboli, the filmmaker, producer and actress, whose movie Okafor's Law had its world premiere at the festival this year.
"I feel like the audiences are bored. Hollywood is churning out the same thing over and over again … We have fresh stories. It's original," Oboli said at a press conference in Toronto. "If they're bored, they should look to us - look to Nollywood."
Oboli's film is among eight Nigerian features being screened as part of the festival's annual City-to-City programme, which shines a light on filmmaking in cities around the world. In previous years, this section has shone a light on Seoul, London, Athens, Mumbai, and Istanbul, among other places.
Cameron Bailey, the film festival's artistic director, told Al Jazeera that he took "a leap of faith" when he made the decision to focus on Lagos this year, but he said he believed the timing was right.
"In addition to the very commercial films that have been coming out of Lagos for many years, there's a new generation that has a new Nollywood cinema that is working at higher budget levels, taking more time with their productions, greater technical quality and also just greater artistic ambition," Bailey said.
"We're beginning to see new kinds of films come out that I think can work very well on the festival circuit and in the rest of the film industry, so that's why I wanted to do it now."
The eight Nigerian films at the festival explore an array of storylines and genres, from the comedic capers of a Lagos cabbie in Daniel Emeke Oriahi's Oko Ashewo (Taxi Driver), to a drama about Lagos' successful battle against an outbreak of Ebola in 93 Days, directed by Steve Gukas.
In 76, Izu Ojukwu looks at the impact of a failed coup attempt in Nigeria in 1976, while director Uduak-Obong Patrick has made a youthful crime-comedy with a Lagos backdrop in Just Not Married.
The Wedding Party, meanwhile, invites audiences in to experience the joy and traditions of a Nigerian wedding - complete with all the drama and complications that may arise.
"What makes a Nigerian wedding party so different? You have to experience it first hand to be able to understand it. It's nothing like you've ever seen before: the colours, the attire, the people … It's a remarkable experience," said director Kemi Adetiba about the film, her first feature.
"The stories I think will resonate with all audiences," Bailey said, "but what you get to learn about, is how the storytellers shape their films in a very distinct way."
$3.3bn industry
The Nigerian film industry is second only to India's Bollywood in terms of the number of films produced, which is estimated at around 200 a month, according to an entertainment and media report by PricewaterhouseCoopers for 2014-2018 (PDF).
In 2014, the Nigerian government estimated that Nollywood was a $3.3bn industry, with 1,844 movies produced in 2013, Fortune magazine reported. The industry brings in $600m to the Nigerian economy annually, according to 2014 figures put out by the US International Trade Commission.
To date, Nigerian films have been cheap to produce and shoots generally last less than a month. "This enables a quick financial turnaround: A movie can be profitable within two to three weeks of release," the PwC report stated.
But most Nigerian films are watched on DVD and pirating is widespread: Nine pirated copies of a film are sold for every legitimate one, according to the World Bank (PDF).
According to Nigerian actress Genevieve Nnaji, who starred in 2013's Half of a Yellow Sun, the higher production values of recent Nigerian films demonstrate that Nollywood is ready for greater international collaborations.
"We need to invite more audience. We need to be more open with even our storylines and with collaborations. Right now, that's kind of the focus, which is why we're glad we're here," she told Al Jazeera at the festival.
Tapping into where the cinemas are is also important to build an audience, the actress said.
Despite having a population of more than 180 million people, Nigeria lacks cinemas: The filmmakers and producers at TIFF put the number of cinemas across Nigeria at 29, meaning the country has a total of only about 100 screens.
Building a global audience
Many in the industry wonder if Nigerian filmmakers should really be focused on appealing to an international audience, rather than making better films to satisfy their already expansive fan base.
According to Niyi Akinmolayan, director of The Arbitration, it is less about seeking validation from the United States or Hollywood, and more so wanting "to make films good enough for anyone anywhere to watch our movies".
"And, hopefully, we'll get some recognition," he said.
The Arbitration is largely set in a meeting room in Lagos, where a woman has accused a Nigerian IT company's chief executive - her former lover and boss - of rape. Though the film is partly a peak into the growing Nigerian hi-tech industry, its main themes - sexual harassment, power dynamics, and gender roles - are universal.
"I felt this is a perfect opportunity to polarise the audience and make them ask important questions. And in this case, we're defining sexual harassment, we're defining rape, we're defining the place of a woman in society … I always feel there's a lot of beauty and truth when you get people to ask questions," Akinmolayan said.
According to film festival's artistic director, Bailey, a desire to reach global audiences while also maintaining the distinctive style that appeals to people at home is something that has been witnessed in the film industries of South Korea, China, India and even France in recent years.
"I think Nigeria can do both," Bailey said. "Not everybody working in Nollywood is going to want, for instance, to try to set up a co-production with an American company or a European company, but some will. And I think the ones that will, will do well with it."
'Storytellers by nature'
David Oyelowo, the Nigerian-British actor who has starred in Hollywood films Selma and Five Nights in Maine, said the TIFF spotlight "is the start of something absolutely fantastic" for Nigerian talent.
"We've been doing this for a long time - telling stories traditionally, filmically, poetically. We are storytellers by nature," Oyelowo said in Toronto, where he is promoting his latest film, Queen of Katwe.
And it is those stories - uniquely Nigerian, but open to the world - that will propel Nollywood forward into its third decade, says young Nigerian director Abba Makama.
Makama was in Toronto to screen Green White Green, a coming-of-age story about three soon-to-be university students who set out to make a film and in the process learn who they are personally and within the mosaic of Nigerian cultures.
Bailey described the film as reminiscent of an early Spike Lee Joint, or even of American director Richard Linklater's work.
"The whole idea came about when I was studying in New York, and I would get the most ignorant questions about where I came from," Makama says. "I said, 'I need to go back home, and I'm going to show them where I'm from, what I'm doing, what I'm all about.'"
"It's my own way to say how much I love film, but I also wanted to give the western audience a crash course on what it means to be Nigerian. There isn't one archetype. There are facets. There are layers."
Thursday, September 15, 2016
How Nollywood got ready for its close-up on the global film festival stage
At times it feels like Nollywood has been around forever, such has been the Nigerian movie business’ impact on pan-African pop cultures and awareness around the world—and in Nigeria itself.
In truth, the modern version of Nigeria’s famed movie industry is less than 25 years old, making it a relative youngster by film industry standards. That might be why this week’s showcase of eight Nollywood movies at the influential Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) feels like a coming out ball for Nollywood to the global movie industry.
For years, the industry has attracted interest globally with an exciting but mixed reputation. Its low-budget, high-volume production levels helped it grow rapidly to become the world’s second biggest movie industry by volume, behind only India’s Bollywood. Then, there’s its well-documented problems with piracy with which the industry continues to struggle. But in Toronto the world’s leading movie makers and marketers will be taking a close look at Nollywood for the right reason: the much improved quality of its films.
Toronto Film Festival is probably best renown for identifying early Oscar contenders but it’s also an important venue to meet a variety of North American distributors from cable TV to movie theaters. Nigerian movie makers will be keen to be seen with a new slate of higher quality movies compared with the early days of the industry.
There’s been a growing shift from movie quantity to quality in recent years. In the past, Nollywood filmmakers had a reputation for breaking up feature films into unnecessary stretched out sequels in a bid to eke out as much revenue as possible by selling more home movies on DVD. But now, rather than put out multiple films annually, filmmakers are beginning to spend more time and resources to making fewer but better movies with the aim of being on the big screen in movie theaters.
This is largely down to increased investment in creating content. Africa Magic, a television channel owned by digital satellite giants, Multichoice, has been at the forefront of content creation, commissioning the development of Nollywood dramas and sitcoms. Multichoice is a division of Africa’s largest company, the South African media giant, Naspers.
The movies selected for the festival have small budgets by Hollywood standards, but huge in the context of Nollywood. For example ’76’, a historical fiction drama, cost $3 million to make and is supported by Africa Magic. EbonyLife TV, a Nigerian entertainment network, helped produce ‘Wedding Party’, which has had a high profile at the festival.
In addition to the selected movies, Lagos, Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital, will also be in focus having been selected as part of the City to City programme for the film festival. For many in the industry, the recognition by the Toronto film festival is seen as a nod to Nollywood’s rapid growth and evolution over the years.
With deeper pockets, investors are starting to bankroll the production of better quality movies, thus raising standards across the board.
“Standards have financial implications—you can’t expect certain standards on low-budget production,” says Chris Ihidero, the Lagos-based producer of popular TV sitcom, Fuji House of Commotion and drama series, Hush. He says better quality is inevitable with increased investment. “Filmmakers have always been skilled but have lacked finance. What we’re seeing now is a result of investors putting money on the table.”
Pirates of Lagos Lagoon
In the past, the motivating factor for putting out multiple movies was down to the lack of revenue structure in the industry. Movies were typically released straight to DVD or Video CD (VCD) as producers sold distribution rights to promoters for small profits. More often than not, promoters then facilitated the piracy of the films to recover their costs.
When Nigerians didn’t buy pirated movies, they rented them for a small token from home video rental shops which were popular in the 1990s and early 2000s. Crucially though, the revenues generated from the hundreds of rental stores hardly made it back to the producers. But that has changed over the past decade as the local cinema infrastructure, and consequently movie culture, has evolved and grown.
There are now some 25 cinemas across the country, most opened in the last 10 years. This is a tiny number for a country of 180 million people, even if they were just focused on its burgeoning middle class—23% of its population. The good news is that the growth of local movie theaters means filmmakers now have their movies screened before going on to DVD, bringing Nollywood more in line with the traditional Hollywood model.
One of the big successes of this model is ’30 days of Atlanta’, a 2014 romantic comedy which went on to gross $434,000—reportedly the highest for a local movie in Nigerian cinema history. But Ihidero says the cinemas are not anywhere near enough yet. “We need about 1,000 cinemas,” he says. At current pace, Ihidero estimates Nollywood films average $15,000 at the box office screening for two weeks in local cinemas. “You cannot grow an industry with revenue like that,” he says.
To plug the gap, Nollywood can turn to video on-demand platforms like iROKOtv, the largest online distributor of African online video (and also a producer of movies through ROK Studios). Since launch, iROKOtv has been popular among Nollywood’s key diaspora market. But as the price of mobile data drops locally, Nigerians are beginning to consume more content on mobile than ever before.
While the cinema culture is crucial to helping local films generate revenues, piracy problems still persist. DVD sales still only contribute a tiny fraction of revenue for filmmakers. Instead, pirates bootleg films, often publicly, cutting into the filmmaker’s earnings. According to World Bank estimates, for each legitimate sale, nine others are pirated. Kunle Afolayan, a leading filmmaker and Quartz Africa Innovators 2015 honoree, has felt the brunt firsthand. Afolayan’s movie, October 1, ended up being pirated before its planned DVD release last year severely reducing Afolayan’s chances of recouping his $2 million investment in the film.
Telling our story
Regardless of the problems that persist, the spotlight on Nollywood in Toronto brings with it a chance for Nigerian filmmakers to take the lead in telling the country’s many stories. For decades, there has been dissatisfaction with how Western media has represented Nigeria and the rest of the continent. Hollywood films and music videos have also been complicit. Movies depicting war and famine as a pervasive and generic reality as well as music videos lacking nuance, like Taylor Swift’s ‘Wildest Dreams’, have come in for criticism.
Lonzo Nzekwe, a Toronto-based Nigerian filmmaker, says the growing popularity of Nollywood films and stories outside the country could help fix that. “When Hollywood goes to Africa, they’ll show you the jungles and the dirty part of the continent,” Nzekwe told Toronto Metro. “But through Nollywood films you see the excellence of Africa. You see the beauty and the positive aspects of it. That’s the good thing about what TIFF is doing now.”
As British-Nigerian Hollywood star David Oyelowo reminded the audience in Toronto, “We are storytellers.”
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
David Oyelowo talks about the rise of Nigerian 'Nollywood' films
The two-time Golden Globe-nominated British star, who spent part of his childhood in Nigeria, says he may return there one day to join its booming movie industry, which is a hot topic at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
"I can tell by the profile that they are gaining that it's not going to be long before I -- to be perfectly frank, as someone who has established their career in Western filmmaking -- am going to be desirous to go back and make a film that would be deemed a Nollywood movie," Oyelowo said in an interview at the Toronto film fest.
"Because for me, excellence is key and I want to work with the best filmmakers in the world, whoever they are, wherever they are. And of course there's going to be a very particular desire to do that if that is happening in Nigeria."
The Toronto film festival's City to City program is showcasing eight titles from Lagos, Nigeria, a prolific centre for cinema.
"Nollywood, it oscillates between being the second- and third-biggest film industry in the world," said Oyelowo, who stars in two films at the fest: the Ugandan chess-champion drama "Queen of Katwe" and the interracial couple story "A United Kingdom."
"Living there myself, being of Nigerian parentage, we love a good story, we love a good yarn. It's very much embedded in the culture and that's why we have this prolific production of movies."
Each year, Nollywood produces about 1,000 low-budget features that generate about $1 billion in ticket sales, according to TIFF.
That's giving rise to a new generation of filmmakers, as well as bigger movie budgets.
"Up until recently, the production value of the films has been fairly low and that has also been impacted by piracy, which means that it's a very hard industry within to make the commensurate amount of remuneration you should for making movies," said Oyelowo.
"So that's also why the production values have remained low, because by and large, about a week or so into having made your movie, it's going to be so pirated that you stop making money for it. So you've got to make all of your money very, very quickly and then move onto the next one."
But new streaming avenues cropping up in Africa are reducing piracy and increasing the quality of the films, added Oyelowo.
He also noted that Nigerians who had emigrated to the U.S. began to return home after the 2008 economic crisis.
"Now they are emerging as entrepreneurs, as filmmakers who have taken what they learned, whether in American or in Europe, back and employing those methods to Nigerian storytelling and the quality is being driven up," he said.
"So I believe it won't be long before movies coming out of Nigeria are going to be at a world-class level."
Related story: Nollywood in the spotlight at this year's TIFF
Monday, September 12, 2016
Nigeria Ebola movie gets resounding applause at TIFF
Apart from telling a global story from a Nigerian perspective, many were enthralled that 93 Days, the Ebola virus drama by Steve Gukas, was as gripping as the true account of the happenstances that held Lagos and other Nigerian cities by the jugular in 2014.
Incidentally, it is one of the films that celebrate Lagos State for its conquest of the virus within 93 days, despite a precarious compact population.
During the curtain call, Gukas shed more light on the essence of the film, which he said is a celebration of Lagos for its proactiveness in containing the virus as well as to immortalize the legendary doctors and nurses who put their lives in the line.
He said: “In this film, we did two things: challenging the perception about Nigeria and presenting it to outsiders to see. The other one is to ask very challenging questions about government. Because the truth of the matter is that government did a lot at that time but the health defense infrastructure in Nigeria is still very weak, to the extent that if this were to happen again, we would be struggling again. We have six different regions in Nigeria that are the key to how Nigeria is structured, and Lagos was the most prepared to be able to take care of this, so we were lucky it happened in Lagos. Had it happed somewhere in the North, somewhere in the East, or somewhere farther in the North East, the story we would be telling will be different. So the question we are asking our government is how prepared are we for next time?”
Responding, Lagos State Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde noted that the state was indeed prepared for Ebola having invested hugely in health services and infrastructure. He said there was the need to archive reality; hence he was glad a film like ’93 Days’ was produced to tell the story. What is government doing? He asked rhetorically. “There are quite a lot. Lagos is a state of 21 million people, and that calls for pro-activeness. Our government in particular is investing in emergency health services and all I can say is that we deal with issues as they come and Lagos is ever prepared for any emergencies.”
After its successful screening at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the world premiere of 93 Days took place on Friday, 9th September 2016 at the Isabel Bader Theatre.
The event which started with the arrival of the cast, producers and director had the movie introduced by Cameron Bailey, Creative Director of TIFF.
The premiere was attended by some members of the cast, including Danny Glover, Bimbo Akinkola, Keppy Ekpenyong, Somkele Iyamah-Idlahama, Sola Oyebode, Associate Producer of 93 Days, Kemi DaSilva-Ibru as well as the Producers/Executive Producers; Bolanle Austen-Peters, Dotun Olakunri and Steve Gukas.
Also speaking during the Q&A, Glover emphasized how he was so proud to be a part of the film.
“It was important for me to be in this film because of the message. Nigeria is a dynamic great country; it’s a country where the people are challenging themselves. This is an example of how they challenged themselves and succeeded. I’m so proud to be a part of it.”
Scheduled for another premiere in Lagos on September 13 at The Rock Cathedral, Lekki, the movie will be showing in cinemas nationwide from September 16.
Incidentally, it is one of the films that celebrate Lagos State for its conquest of the virus within 93 days, despite a precarious compact population.
During the curtain call, Gukas shed more light on the essence of the film, which he said is a celebration of Lagos for its proactiveness in containing the virus as well as to immortalize the legendary doctors and nurses who put their lives in the line.
He said: “In this film, we did two things: challenging the perception about Nigeria and presenting it to outsiders to see. The other one is to ask very challenging questions about government. Because the truth of the matter is that government did a lot at that time but the health defense infrastructure in Nigeria is still very weak, to the extent that if this were to happen again, we would be struggling again. We have six different regions in Nigeria that are the key to how Nigeria is structured, and Lagos was the most prepared to be able to take care of this, so we were lucky it happened in Lagos. Had it happed somewhere in the North, somewhere in the East, or somewhere farther in the North East, the story we would be telling will be different. So the question we are asking our government is how prepared are we for next time?”
Responding, Lagos State Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde noted that the state was indeed prepared for Ebola having invested hugely in health services and infrastructure. He said there was the need to archive reality; hence he was glad a film like ’93 Days’ was produced to tell the story. What is government doing? He asked rhetorically. “There are quite a lot. Lagos is a state of 21 million people, and that calls for pro-activeness. Our government in particular is investing in emergency health services and all I can say is that we deal with issues as they come and Lagos is ever prepared for any emergencies.”
After its successful screening at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the world premiere of 93 Days took place on Friday, 9th September 2016 at the Isabel Bader Theatre.
The event which started with the arrival of the cast, producers and director had the movie introduced by Cameron Bailey, Creative Director of TIFF.
The premiere was attended by some members of the cast, including Danny Glover, Bimbo Akinkola, Keppy Ekpenyong, Somkele Iyamah-Idlahama, Sola Oyebode, Associate Producer of 93 Days, Kemi DaSilva-Ibru as well as the Producers/Executive Producers; Bolanle Austen-Peters, Dotun Olakunri and Steve Gukas.
Also speaking during the Q&A, Glover emphasized how he was so proud to be a part of the film.
“It was important for me to be in this film because of the message. Nigeria is a dynamic great country; it’s a country where the people are challenging themselves. This is an example of how they challenged themselves and succeeded. I’m so proud to be a part of it.”
Scheduled for another premiere in Lagos on September 13 at The Rock Cathedral, Lekki, the movie will be showing in cinemas nationwide from September 16.
Friday, September 2, 2016
Nollywood in the spotlight at this year's TIFF
The world’s second-biggest film industry was born in 1992, when a Nigerian trader was pondering how to sell a large shipment of blank Taiwanese videotapes.
He thought the cassettes might sell better if they had some content on them, so he hired a crew to produce a low-budget film about witchcraft and murder in Lagos. The film, Living in Bondage, quickly sold 750,000 copies, mostly through street vendors, and Nollywood was launched.
For more than two decades, Nigeria’s film industry has churned out thousands of movies every year, notorious for their cheap budgets, hasty shooting schedules, lurid plots and melodramatic acting – and they’re wild popularity across Africa. But now, Nollywood is changing. New investors are entering, production values are rising and ambitions are soaring. And this month, Nollywood makes a giant leap toward global respectability when it arrives in Toronto for its first sustained exposure at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Cameron Bailey, artistic director of TIFF, has chosen eight Nigerian films to screen at the festival’s City to City program, where Lagos will be the featured city for the first time. “A new generation of filmmakers is emerging to both advance and challenge Nollywood,” he said in his announcement of the series. “Bigger budgets, greater artistic ambition – the new cinema of Lagos is bold, exciting, and ready to take its place on the international stage.”
Bailey, who visited Lagos earlier this year, says he was besieged by Nigerian producers, directors and actors who told him they will fly to Toronto to attend the festival’s unprecedented showcase of Nigerian films. One of the invited films, the period drama ’76, will have its world premiere at TIFF, with a red-carpet screening at the Isabel Bader Theatre on Sept. 11.
The film’s star, Nollywood icon Rita Dominic, plays a beautiful Nigerian student who becomes romantically involved with a military officer and then sees him accused of involvement in an attempted coup and assassination in 1976. In a socially conservative and often-divided country, the film is a taboo-busting saga of two lovers from very different regions of Nigeria, just a few years after the Biafran War, with Dominic’s character unmarried and pregnant.
“We’re beginning to do films that can play at the international level,” Dominic tells The Globe and Mail in a phone interview from Lagos. “This is the world stage, and it’s rare for us. It means the future is bright for our industry. We want everyone around the world to know about our films. After making films just for people in Nigeria, after going around and around in circles, you want to break outside of that circle and reach an international audience. I’m excited but at the same time I’m very nervous and anxious.”
According to Dominic’s publicists, the 41-year-old actress has appeared in more than 60 films in her career. But a more comprehensive source, the Internet Movie Database, lists her as appearing in 157 films – including a staggering 37 movies in 2006 alone. It’s an astonishing testament to Nollywood’s rapid-fire production standards.
In her early career, Dominic recalls, her films often took only a week to shoot. But her latest film, ’76, required two months of rehearsal and four months of shooting. Its budget is estimated at $3-million (U.S.) – surprisingly high by Nollywood traditions.
“We have more properly trained people coming into our industry, people who are technically trained and understand the art of movie-making,” Dominic says. “We have investors who believe more in Nollywood now. In the past, getting investors interested was difficult. You had to prove that they could make their money back. Now we’ve grown the industry to the point where it can’t be ignored.”
Many investors had shunned Nollywood because 90 per cent of its films are pirated within a few days of their release. Even on typical shoestring budgets of $25,000 to $50,000 a film, it was hard for investors to turn a profit.
But today, there are growing numbers of cinemas in Nigeria’s new shopping malls and rising numbers of online platforms to monetize Nollywood’s work, including Netflix and iTunes and their African equivalents. Some African websites pay as much as $25,000 for the right to stream a Nollywood film. “You can make money in cinemas and online before you release it on DVD, so you’re not losing out so much from piracy any more,” Dominic says.
When Nigeria’s economy was reassessed with a new official survey in 2014, the film industry was included for the first time – and it helped Nigeria gain unprecedented recognition as the biggest economy in Africa. By some estimates, Nollywood contributes $3.3-billion to Nigeria’s economy.
Measured by official revenue, Nollywood is the third-biggest film industry in the world, ranking behind Hollywood and India. But ranked by the number of films produced annually, it is the second-biggest in the world, behind only Bollywood. With an estimated one million employees, Nollywood has become the country’s second-biggest employer.
But for Nollywood queens such as Rita Dominic, the industry is still founded on the power of love stories, even if they have higher budgets and period costumes these days.
“We’re good at telling simple stories and dramas,” she says. “We’re still telling the same simple stories, but at a much higher level of quality now. The idea is to shoot films that everyone in the world can relate to.”
’76 runs at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 11, 7:30 p.m., Isabel Bader Theatre; Sept. 13, 4:30 p.m., Scotiabank; and Sept. 17, 9:30 p.m., Scotiabank.
Related stories: Video - Nollywood director Kunle Afolayan looking to improve production value for worldwide appeal
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Nigeria cancels plans to build 'Kannywood' village
Nigeria's government has cancelled plans to build a "film village" in the northern state of Kano after opposition from Muslim clerics and social media.
More than $10m (Ј7.6m) had been budgeted to provide state-of-the-art facilities for the Hausa language film industry, known as Kannywood.
The government said the project would create thousands of job opportunities and promote cultural activities.
Muslims clerics have said that the project would promote immorality.
People on social media also called on the government to stop the plan.
Locals have said the project is not a priority - they say the government should instead focus on the revival of dams for agricultural development in the area.
A presidential adviser, Abdurrahaman Kawu Sumaila, announced the cancellation of the project saying that the people have had their say, and the government has heeded them.
A leading Kannywood actor and director, Ali Nuhu, told the BBC that he was confounded by the decision.
Ever since its creation more than 20 years ago, Kannywood has attracted a lot of criticism from the conservative society in the mainly Muslim city.
It has been accused of encouraging teenage girls to run away from home in the hope of becoming actresses.
Kannywood films are produced in the Hausa language and distributed in the Muslim-dominated north.
Most Nigerian films are produced in the south but in English and Pidgin-English.
This film industry, known as Nollywood, is the country's biggest cultural export and has made a name for Nigerian artists across Africa.
More than $10m (Ј7.6m) had been budgeted to provide state-of-the-art facilities for the Hausa language film industry, known as Kannywood.
The government said the project would create thousands of job opportunities and promote cultural activities.
Muslims clerics have said that the project would promote immorality.
People on social media also called on the government to stop the plan.
Locals have said the project is not a priority - they say the government should instead focus on the revival of dams for agricultural development in the area.
A presidential adviser, Abdurrahaman Kawu Sumaila, announced the cancellation of the project saying that the people have had their say, and the government has heeded them.
A leading Kannywood actor and director, Ali Nuhu, told the BBC that he was confounded by the decision.
Ever since its creation more than 20 years ago, Kannywood has attracted a lot of criticism from the conservative society in the mainly Muslim city.
It has been accused of encouraging teenage girls to run away from home in the hope of becoming actresses.
Kannywood films are produced in the Hausa language and distributed in the Muslim-dominated north.
Most Nigerian films are produced in the south but in English and Pidgin-English.
This film industry, known as Nollywood, is the country's biggest cultural export and has made a name for Nigerian artists across Africa.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Video - Nigeria issues $10 million grant to boost film industry
Nigeria's government is giving the local film industry, Nollywood, a shot in the arm. Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun says the 10-million-dollar grant is to help local producers fight piracy and streamline the distribution of Nollywood movies.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Video - British actress 'Onyinbo Princess' is becoming Nollywood sensation
A British actress has been making waves on the Nollywood scene. Claire Edun speaks fluent pidgin - the unique Nigerian mix of local languages and English. CCTV's Kelechi Emekalam sat down with the actress, and filed this report.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Nominees for African Movie Academy Awards released
The nominees in the 28 categories of the African Movie Academy Awards, AMAA,the annual pan-African reward system for motion picture practitioners were announced Sunday, May 15, by Mr. Shaibu Husseini, the President of the Jury.
At a media event which took place at the Protea Hotel, GRA Ikeja, Lagos Mr. Husseini who also doubles as the Chairman of the College of Screeners reiterated in his address that AMAA is a jury based award and not a voting awards where nominees embark on voting campaigns to win any of the categories.
The Jury, however, announced nominees into 26 categories as the Board of Jurors is yet to conclude on the remaining two categories according to Mr. Husseini, "The remaining categories are special Jury awards and before the awards ceremony we would have decided on the nominees and eventual winners and by that time we would have the full Jury members on ground."
The Jury President also revealed that quality of movies that came into the competition have improved greatly adding that more young people across the continent are coming into the industry as film makers with over 150 short film entries.
"Our film makers only need to pay attention to details especially in the technical areas. We have the stories already especially film makers producing films in African languages. Truth is we can only compete at the Oscars with our indigenous language films and to do this we must improve on our photography, sound, editing and other technical areas. Our people need to improve on sub-titling of our films. What do as sub-titling are jokes and there is no way our films can travel within the international film festival circuits when the people cant make sense of our films."
Films from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Burkina Faso are in hot chase for the AMAA glory in the acting departments and Best Director's Category with such films as Fifty, Dry, The Cursed One, Eye of the Storm, Ayanda, La Pagne, Tell me Sweet Something and Behind Closed Doors.
"We are very happy about the quality of works that came into the competition this year and it gladdens our heart that every year the objectives of the awards are being achieved with film makers in Africa and beyond upping their game," added Mr. Husseini.
The Board of Jurors of AMAA which has members which include academics, film makers, critics and Film Festival curators from Nigeria, Germany, United States, Zimbabwe, Jamaica and Burkina Faso will decide on which film and individual talents that will emerge eventual winners at a glamorous Awards Night which will take place on Saturday, June 11, 2016 at the Garden City, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
AMAA 2016 NOMINATION LIST
AMAA 2016 AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM
1. Encounter - Nigeria
2. Le Chemin - Cote De Voire
3. Blood Taxi - Nigeria
4. Meet The Parents - Nigeria/Canada
5. Nourah The Holy Light - Burkina Faso
6. Ireti - Nigeria
7. Life of a Nigerian Couple - Nigeria
AMAA 2016 AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATION
1. The Pencil - Burkina Faso
2. The Peculiar Life of a Spider - Ghana
3. Funsie Fast Fingers - Nigeria
4. Lazare Sie Pale - Burkina Faso
AMAA 2016 AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY
1. My Fathers Funeral - Cameroon
At a media event which took place at the Protea Hotel, GRA Ikeja, Lagos Mr. Husseini who also doubles as the Chairman of the College of Screeners reiterated in his address that AMAA is a jury based award and not a voting awards where nominees embark on voting campaigns to win any of the categories.
The Jury, however, announced nominees into 26 categories as the Board of Jurors is yet to conclude on the remaining two categories according to Mr. Husseini, "The remaining categories are special Jury awards and before the awards ceremony we would have decided on the nominees and eventual winners and by that time we would have the full Jury members on ground."
The Jury President also revealed that quality of movies that came into the competition have improved greatly adding that more young people across the continent are coming into the industry as film makers with over 150 short film entries.
"Our film makers only need to pay attention to details especially in the technical areas. We have the stories already especially film makers producing films in African languages. Truth is we can only compete at the Oscars with our indigenous language films and to do this we must improve on our photography, sound, editing and other technical areas. Our people need to improve on sub-titling of our films. What do as sub-titling are jokes and there is no way our films can travel within the international film festival circuits when the people cant make sense of our films."
Films from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Burkina Faso are in hot chase for the AMAA glory in the acting departments and Best Director's Category with such films as Fifty, Dry, The Cursed One, Eye of the Storm, Ayanda, La Pagne, Tell me Sweet Something and Behind Closed Doors.
"We are very happy about the quality of works that came into the competition this year and it gladdens our heart that every year the objectives of the awards are being achieved with film makers in Africa and beyond upping their game," added Mr. Husseini.
The Board of Jurors of AMAA which has members which include academics, film makers, critics and Film Festival curators from Nigeria, Germany, United States, Zimbabwe, Jamaica and Burkina Faso will decide on which film and individual talents that will emerge eventual winners at a glamorous Awards Night which will take place on Saturday, June 11, 2016 at the Garden City, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
AMAA 2016 NOMINATION LIST
AMAA 2016 AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM
1. Encounter - Nigeria
2. Le Chemin - Cote De Voire
3. Blood Taxi - Nigeria
4. Meet The Parents - Nigeria/Canada
5. Nourah The Holy Light - Burkina Faso
6. Ireti - Nigeria
7. Life of a Nigerian Couple - Nigeria
AMAA 2016 AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATION
1. The Pencil - Burkina Faso
2. The Peculiar Life of a Spider - Ghana
3. Funsie Fast Fingers - Nigeria
4. Lazare Sie Pale - Burkina Faso
AMAA 2016 AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY
1. My Fathers Funeral - Cameroon
Friday, May 13, 2016
Video - Caucasian British actress becomes Nollywood star
A British former air hostess has become a star of Nigeria's 'Nollywood' film industry after mastering pidgin English. Claire Edun, from Winchester, Hampshire, became interested in the language - a version of English spoken in West Africa - after visiting the country through work. Her almost-flawless use of the dialect led to her being scouted by one of Nigeria's top directors and she has now become a hit in the country's flourishing film industry. The 31-year-old's new movie has become such a success that she is now famous with cinema-goers in the African state and has been nicknamed Oyinbo Princess - meaning 'White Princess'.
She admits that tredding the red carpets of Lagos is a million miles from the village pantos and school plays which she first acted in, but she has grown a love for Nigeria, which she now considers a home from home.
She told MailOnline: 'It's very weird. I still have to pinch myself sometimes and remind myself that this is actually happening.
'When I am in Nigeria, people often recognise me and stop me for selfies. Even in London the other day, I was stopped by a Nigerian in Woolwich and asked for a photo.
'One of my first memories of acting was of me on a stage in a panto in a community hall in Titchfield, a small village in Hampshire, so I've come a long way since that.'
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Video - Nigerian boarding school movie ZR-7 now available on DVD and VOD
The critically acclaimed feature ZR-7 The Red House seven is now available on amazon.com DVD and VOD:
ZR-7 tells the classic life of boarding school adventure involving TJ with six of his friends (Rolly-D, Chiedu, UK, Tokunbo, Femi & James) while in JSS 1 (7th grade). The boys are initially shocked by all the hoops they have to jump in order to survive teachers, prefects, wicked seniors, dining hall food, thieves, cutting grass, washing toilets, puppy love and all the other regular experiences anyone in a public Nigerian boarding school would experience. But when TJ and the boys accidentally see a man and two female students in an uncompromising position, what they do with that information is not their only problem in school, but the resulting scandal would change their lives far beyond their wildest dreams.
Written and Directed by Olufemi D. Ogunsanwo & Udoka Oyeka
Director Of Photography Bishop C. Kagho Idhebor
Editor Chidi Nwaozomudoh
IMDB
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