I liked the article, but i think i would have liked it more if I hadn't read at least ten versions of it before. Though to be fair, this one gave a little glimpse into the inner conflicts that will affect the future of nollywood. Which is rare for a foreign paper.
always the same article and the same lie.. 3rd industry in volume ? GTFOOH
comparing the number of (low-quality) video releases which are often doubled by cutting a movie in two parts to the number of FEATURE MOVIES released in other countries is stupid.
and i bet that if you counted straight-to-video, straight-to-tv, series, features for France, UK, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong and a few others, Nollywood would be far far far in the list.
yeah... it does rather feel like this story was written by researching similar stories written 3 years ago. all the same points are dutifully touched upon, and even more worrying is the contention that the overriding theme in Nollywood movies is witchcraft.
i'm not the biggest watcher of Nollywood movies, but even i know that the "juju" film went out of fashion quite a while ago. in fact, i believe the censors board actively discouraged witchcraft-themed movies.
(though to be fair, i guess a belief in witchcraft is still a muted undercurrent in many films... but even then it's still far from "the single most popular thene.")
I enjoyed the article, but also the little phrase at the end, no doubt added for dramatic flair, about the government and NGOs not taking an interest, is not quite true either. I attended two government-sponsored seminars last July, in which the government is very interested in the export potential of Nollywood (and thus how to make the films attractive to an international audience). I also saw (at the British Council) some films sponsored by the British Film Institute to help "develop" the film industry. My personal perspective (probably unrealistic) is that the less NGO/govt. meddling the better, but the filmmakers seem to welcome it, to a certain extent, because it involves money.... And, of course, these things are always more complex than either/or.
4 comments:
I liked the article, but i think i would have liked it more if I hadn't read at least ten versions of it before. Though to be fair, this one gave a little glimpse into the inner conflicts that will affect the future of nollywood. Which is rare for a foreign paper.
always the same article and the same lie..
3rd industry in volume ?
GTFOOH
comparing the number of (low-quality) video releases which are often doubled by cutting a movie in two parts to the number of FEATURE MOVIES released in other countries is stupid.
and i bet that if you counted straight-to-video, straight-to-tv, series, features for France, UK, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong and a few others, Nollywood would be far far far in the list.
yeah... it does rather feel like this story was written by researching similar stories written 3 years ago. all the same points are dutifully touched upon, and even more worrying is the contention that the overriding theme in Nollywood movies is witchcraft.
i'm not the biggest watcher of Nollywood movies, but even i know that the "juju" film went out of fashion quite a while ago. in fact, i believe the censors board actively discouraged witchcraft-themed movies.
(though to be fair, i guess a belief in witchcraft is still a muted undercurrent in many films... but even then it's still far from "the single most popular thene.")
I enjoyed the article, but also the little phrase at the end, no doubt added for dramatic flair, about the government and NGOs not taking an interest, is not quite true either. I attended two government-sponsored seminars last July, in which the government is very interested in the export potential of Nollywood (and thus how to make the films attractive to an international audience). I also saw (at the British Council) some films sponsored by the British Film Institute to help "develop" the film industry. My personal perspective (probably unrealistic) is that the less NGO/govt. meddling the better, but the filmmakers seem to welcome it, to a certain extent, because it involves money.... And, of course, these things are always more complex than either/or.
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