[Judge J]

BLF Film Club: Welcome to Nollywood

Date: Sunday 4th May 2008
Time: 4pm
Venue: Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), The Mall (just off Trafalgar Square).
Adm: 8 non-members / 7 concession / 6 members (Book: 0207 930 3647 or online at Institute of Contemporary Arts : Homepage : Homepage)

Dir: Jamie Meltzer
Duration: 56 min USA, 2007
Certificate: 12A
Language:English Subtitles

By Tube: Charing Cross or Piccadilly Circus
By Bus: 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 22, 23, 24, 29, 38, 77a, 88, 91, 139, 176
BFM: BFM Media - Home
or contact Film Club Co-ordinator Nadia Denton at nadia@bfmmedia.com

The Nigerian film industry, known as “Nollywood”, has exploded in the last ten years. Now the most popular cinema in all of West Africa - more popular even than imports of Hollywood or Bollywood films - the Nigerian film industry has distinguished itself by shooting all films (called “video-films”) on digital video. The sheer volume of Nigerian video-films is staggering: one estimate has a film being produced for each day of the year. Nollywood is now the third largest film industry in the world, generating 286 million dollars per year for the Nigerian economy. And yet this vibrant, profitable industry is virtually unknown outside of Africa.

The film follows three directors and their latest productions, while also using interviews with scholars, actors, and journalists who celebrate (in insightful and often humorous ways) the Nigerian video-film industry as a whole, its unique character and genres, as well as its impact on the culture of West Africa and Africans at home and abroad.

Screening will be followed by a discussion led by Tope Omoniyi, Professor of Sociolinguistics, Roehampton University, and Coordinator of the Nigerian Films Project.

BFM Film Club bringing the unseen to light