Bollywood? Don’t you mean ‘Nollywood?’

Jun 9th, 2011 8:57 AM UTC
By Marissa Glauberman

Please welcome our summer new media intern Marissa Glauberman. She’s a great writer and we hope you’re looking forward to her posts just as much as we are!

You’ve heard of Hollywood, you’ve heard of Bollywood — but have you heard of Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry?

Nigeria’s film industry is the 2nd largest in the world and rakes in a whopping $800 million a year. In fact, Nollywood is responsible for employing the most workers outside the country’s government sector. With film titles like like “Friendly Scorpion,” “Anchor Baby” (watch the trailer below) and “Light of Truth,” the industry churns out high-grossing movies across all genres: drama, comedy, black ritual and even evangelical Christian.

Recently, the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), the top film company in the industry, hosted their annual Film Lecture Series, an event that’s part Oscars, part academic forum and part cultural exchange, to discuss ways to improve Nollywood. Turns out that folks in the industry want to use their craft to help develop Nigeria’s economy and political structure.

That’s refreshing to hear. Before learning about Nigeria’s film industry, my knowledge about Nigeria was largely based on their political instability, corruption and the promise of recently elected President Goodluck Jonathan. While these issues are of serious importance, the media is overlooking the promise of the Nigerian film industry to do more than just produce films.

Industry leaders at this year’s lecture also spent time discussing the stronghold that the cinema can have in influencing national politics. Afolabi Adesanya, the managing director of the NFC, noted that political parties had to “woo” Nollywood, and that their economic and social success could provide a platform to legitimatize the political system.

Nigerian celebs are doing what they can to help raise awareness of their country’s problems. It girl Ini Edo spent her birthday in Lagos’ Dustbin Estate slum to draw attention to the fact that there are countless children living in dumping sites both in and outside of the business capital. The use of celebrity as a tool for awareness and funding shows what a profound tool Nollywood is and will continue to be in catalyzing change.

The depth of the Nigerian film industry is clear in the range of topics explored in their films. However, the influence of Nigerian cinematography extends way beyond entertainment. So, next time you decide to rent a foreign film, consider that watching a Nollywood movie could mean promoting economic and democratic development abroad.

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