Nigeria's Nollywood spotlighted at DOXA film series

Hooray for Nollywood! No, it’s not a spelling mistake. It’s not meant to be Bollywood or Hollywood. It is in fact Nollywood, the rapidly expanding Nigerian film industry.

It’s one of the largest film industries in the world, yet, in a country contending with mass poverty, it remains a direct-to-DVD business and production budgets only reach up to $20,000 or less.

Common themes and elements are religion and witchcraft in these modern-day adaptations of African storytelling for home audiences.

Canadian filmmakers Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal (who previously directed Discordia, about the riot during the 2002 visit of former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Montreal’s Concordia University, and Bombay Calling, a documentary about outsourcing to India) made a documentary about this industry, Nollywood Babylon, which focuses on the influential young director Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen (also known as “Da Governor”) who has made over 150 films (only a portion are listed on his IMDb profile). He’s perceived as the Nollywood equivalent of Steven Spielberg.

The film will be showing as part of the monthly DOXA Documentary Film Series starting on February 12 (7 p.m.) at Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour Street).

Tickets go on sale today at the DOXA Web site, Videomatica (1855 West 4th Avenue), and the DOXA Office (5–1726 Commercial Drive). For more information, visit the Web site or call 604-646-3200.

Future screenings in the series will take place on March 8 and April 16. These screenings will precede the annual DOXA film festival, which runs from May 22 to 31.