Friday, August 6, 2010

Nollywood Babylon


Nollywood Babylon is about the amazing growth of the Nigerian movie industry since 1992. Nigeria is in 3rd place ,behind USA and India,in producing the most movies. The main difference between Nigeria and most other countries film output is 99% of of the Nollywood films are released straight to VCD/DVD and rarely if ever play any cinemas. Also there is a strong Evangelical Christian theme in most of the films. This documentary shows how the various directors and film crews adopt a gureilla film making approach. IE filming most of the scenes in various houses,and using lots of outdoor markets as filming locations. This documentary focuses mainly on a directer/producer named Lancelot. He has made over 150 movies so far. Most of his films take about a week to make ,and he usually makes 2 films per month. Another interesting aspect of Nollywood is all the films cost 15,000 or under. Another director profiled in this documentary uses her films to promote her church. And her films all seem to involve witchcraft and how God can save you from the evils of the black arts. This was an interesting peek into a piece of world cinema I knew nothing about. My only real complaint is the short running time. Nollywood babylon gets a B+.