Welcome to Nollywood takes you inside the Nigerian film industry, which has exploded in the last ten years. Now the most popular cinema in all of West Africa - more popular even than imports of Hollywood or Bollywood films - the Nigerian film industry has distinguished itself by shooting all films (called video-films) on digital video. This has allowed production schedules to be compressed (films are shot in several days) and immediately brought to market (distribution consists of bringing films to Idumota electronics market in Lagos and selling them for home-viewing). The sheer volume of Nigerian video-films is staggering: one estimate has a film being produced for each day of the year. Nollywood is now the third largest film industry in the world, generating 286 million dollars per year for the Nigerian economy. And yet this vibrant, profitable industry is virtually unknown outside of Africa.
Jamie Meltzer, director of Off the Charts: The Song Poem Story, (which premiered on PBS Independent Lens series In 2003) has created a fascinating look into this newly emerging film industry, exploring its inner workings, economic challenges, and diverse array of colorful films. Traveling to the countrys chaotic capitol, Lagos, Meltzer spent two months following three of Nigerias hottest directors, each different in personality and style, as they shot their films about love, betrayal, war, and the supernatural. Welcome to Nollywood tells the stories of these three directors and their latest productions, while also using interviews with scholars, actors, and journalists who celebrate (in insightful and often humorous ways) Nollywood as a whole, its unique character and genres, as well as its impact on the culture of West Africa and Africans at home and abroad.
Director Jamie Meltzer paints an astounding backdrop. Roger Corman would swoon at the DIY antics employed by Nigerian moviemakers Churning out nearly 2,500 straight-to-video releases a year, they've made the West African nation the worlds third-largest movie market after the U.S. and India.
-Dan Ayer, Time Out New York
Relentlessly entertaining and informative...Welcome to Nollywood boasts wall-to-wall bravado filtered through African-style entrepreneurship: Hook any of the producer-directors profiled here to a generator and the energy might just off set global reliance on oil."
