Perspective
Nigeria’s Booming Film Industry Redefines African Life - Norimitsu Onishi, March 18, 2016
"Nollywood generates about 2,500 movies a year, making it the second-biggest producer after Bollywood in India, and its films have displaced American, Indian and Chinese ones on the televisions that are ubiquitous in bars, hair salons, airport lounges and homes across Africa. The industry employs a million people — second only to farming — in Nigeria, pumping $600 million annually into the national economy, according to a 2014 report by the United States International Trade Commission. In 2002, it made 400 movies and $45 million." - New York Times, Feb 18 2016
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Hurray For Nollywood - Stephen Hayman, Oct. 22, 2014
"Nigerian cinema may be little known outside of Africa, but the country’s homegrown movie business, called Nollywood, produces about 1,000 films a year — a cinematic output that eclipses Hollywood’s and is second only to India’s Bollywood. And the industry continues to develop. Nigerian box office revenues, which have nearly doubled since 2009, are projected to grow an additional 70 percent by 2018, to $171 million a year, according to a report by the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers...." - New York Times Oct. 22 2014
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Step Aside, L.A. and Bombay, for Nollywood - Norimitsu Onishi, Sept. 16, 2012
"...Since the late 1990's, Nigerian movies have found a place next to offerings from Hollywood and Bollywood, Bombay's equivalent, in the cities, towns and villages across English-speaking Africa. Though made on the cheap, with budgets of about only $15,000, the Nigerian movies have become huge hits, with stories, themes and faces familiar to other Africans. It is now, according to conservative estimates, a $45 million a year industry..." - New York Times, Sept. 16 2002
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A Scorsese In Lagos - The Making of Nigeria's Film Industry - Andrew Rice, Feb. 23, 2012
"...And yet most of the movies themselves are awful, marred by slapdash production, melodramatic acting and ludicrous plots. Afolayan, who is 37, is one of a group of upstart directors trying to transcend those rote formulas and low expectations. His breakthrough film, the 2009 thriller “The Figurine,” was an aesthetic leap: while no viewer would confuse it with “Citizen Kane,” to Nigerians it announced the arrival of a swaggering talent keen to upset an immature industry. Unlike most Nollywood fare, “The Figurine” was released in actual theaters, not on cheap discs, playing to packed houses next to Hollywood features. “Many observers,” Jonathan Haynes, a scholar of Nollywood, recently wrote, “have been waiting a long time for this kind of filmmaking, which can take its place in the international arena proudly and on equal terms....” - New York Times, Feb 23 2012
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The Other Tinseltown - Paul Berger, Feb. 20, 2009
"THEY come in boldly colored DVD boxes bearing titles like “Hidden Tears” and “Crime of Love.” They are the products of Nollywood, as the Nigerian film industry is affectionately known. And huge numbers of these films can be found in a tiny nondescript storefront on 165th Street near the Grand Concourse in the West Bronx. There are holes in the ceiling, the linoleum floor sags, and handwritten signs plaster the walls. Yet, this ramshackle space of less than 200 square feet is home to a seven-year-old wholesale and retail business called African Movies Mall, which claims to be the city’s oldest and largest distributor of Nigerian movies...." - New York Times, Feb 20 2009
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