The African film industry led by Nollywood (Nigerian film Industry) is a multi million to billion dollar industry that has been slept on by most of the world, but has been kept alive & booming by the spending power of Africans in & out of the continent. Most of these films are straight to DVD & made on budgets that range from 10-50k max. From the growing number of African hair braiding salons throughout the United States & Europe introducing their American & European clientele to African films as they sit down for hours getting their hair braided while being entertained by African films, to Africans like my aunt who buy an average of 6 DVD’s a week to connect to their homeland-the African film industry is at an all time boom with an influx of dollars & euros flowing in with investment capital that produces quicker returns than a fledgling unpredictable stock market. Through good times & bad times people all over the world will always watch films & now it’s Africa’s time for a Close Up with All Eyes on Africa!

“Nollywood” is the name that has been coined for the prolific Nigerian film industry, which produces about 2,500 films per year — most on shoe-string budgets. The average number of production days per film? Approximately 10. Nollywood films are popular throughout the entire African continent and quite marketable in the United States and Europe. Read More

“I have watched dozens of Nollywood movies – as Nigerian films are known – on public transport in nearby Ghana. Overly long, they often have trite plots and shuddering camerawork that grates on anyone used to slick production and a thumping soundtrack. But half an hour into each journey, I find myself hooked. I have been living in a very different culture and these bus-journey screenings offered an eclectic insight into the world around me…This clearly wasn’t Hollywood. But nor did they resemble the one-dimensional images of Africa presented on the news bulletins. These were tales of love, money and betrayal. Buried within these at times fantastic stories were, I thought as the passengers around me laughed and groaned in recognition, African realities….This week, some of those African realities will be on screen in London. Nollywood Now, the UK’s first festival of Nigerian popular cinema, is being held in New Cross…This is slightly belated recognition of the world’s second-largest film industry. In 2006 Nigeria made 872 films (in video format, with about half of them in English), about 200 less than Bollywood and roughly 400 more than Hollywood..” READ MORE

This year, the United Nations announced that Nigeria’s film industry had surpassed the U.S. in numbers of feature films produced. Though many of the country’s movies are produced in local languages, a large number of English-language movies have helped Nigeria export the “Nollywood” experience abroad..Source: World Focus:Read More Here

It seems whenever individual forward thinking Africans start something from nothing & prosper, Westerners come to exercise their culture of vulturism through so called investment & improvement while the so called  elite Africans, more rightly defined as elitist  Africans, jealous that they do not control everything prosperous come ready with criticism to see its demise. It is time for Africa & her diaspora to stop complaining & start building the industry that they want to see. From America to Brazil , African descendants who are actors & film makers speak of how they are being marginalized, disenfranchised & presented with little to no opportunities in their chosen field; yet they never look to Africa, a continent with the second largest film producing industry in the world that continues to grow while its counterparts in America & other nations downsize & suffer because of the global recession. A continent where their race/color is not only welcomed but celebrated, where their talents & knowledge  of the business is very much needed to build the industry for its global takeover, where Made in Africa is the Future! As Albert Einstein said Insanity =doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results- so why choose insanity instead of change in going where opportunity calls. The African Film Industry is the little engine that could  so instead of criticizing & putting governmental obstacles in its way why not build & improve the industry that will build Africa as its global voice?

“Nigerian films are as popular abroad as they are at home. Ivorian rebels in the bush stop fighting when a shipment of DVDs arrives from Lagos. Zambian mothers say their children talk with accents learnt from Nigerian television. When the president of Sierra Leone asked Genevieve Nnaji, a Lagosian screen goddess, to join him on the campaign trail he attracted record crowds at rallies. Millions of Africans watch Nigerian films every day, many more than see American fare. And yet Africans have mixed feelings about Nollywood….”Read More

With the self-made rise of Nollywood it is no wonder that the World Bank is now getting on board to reap future profits by setting aside $30 million to the development of Africa’s biggest & most profitable film & music industry. Let’s hope the deal will be a movement forward in building & branding what is authentically African instead of the type of date raping of Africa that puts its trust & future independence in developing a mutually beneficial love relationship with the World Bank just to end up stripped, brutalized & dependently in debt!

“World Bank has declared its intention to spend $US30 million on the film and music industry of Nigeria. This is a 100 per cent equity support to Nollywood and musicians in the country.Chioma Nwagboso, Finance & Private Sector Development Unit, World Bank, made this disclosure at the conference organized by the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) in partnership with Georgia Institute of Technology and the Berman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Nwagboso speaking at the event which attracted the heavyweights in the film industry and other stakeholders said the world apex bank is ready to support Nollywood the little way it can.According to her, “The World Bank has some money available for movie and music industry. We want to support four areas, access to finance, distribution and marketing channels, capacity building and helping to solve piracy.” READ MORE

Getting the BUSINESS of Filmmaking right in Africa! Hmm how do we fix this when the basic biz structure of these films was built on piracy & copy right just means ur right 2 b copied?

“For years, fans in Brooklyn have devoured films from Nigeria, paying $3 for bootlegged copies of the latest releases at utilitarian stores in the Flatbush neighborhood that distribute cellphones, calling cards and an evening’s entertainment.The low-budget, pulp features on the shelves, with soap-opera story lines and names like “Key of Life” or “Lagos Boys” or “Last Chance” (Parts 1 and 2) come from what is known as Nollywood, one of the biggest and most prolific film industries in the world.This week, officials seized more than 10,000 counterfeit DVDs from nine stores in Brooklyn in what prosecutors and representatives of the Nigerian film industry said would be a serious effort to regulate the trade of Nigerian films in the United States….”READ MORE