Nigerian Movies & Nollywood on Naijarules.com - View Single Post - Should Nollywood Change the Themes to their Movies

Atlakos · #1 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 10:48 PM

The question is
is it about time Nollywood Change the Themes to their Movies

I just finished reading the recent "Economist"/Jul 9th (Front Page Title: The Future of Globalisationi) and there is an interesting article on page 58 which talks about the growing Nollywood industry and how OBJ and the rest of the government is seriously considering supporting the industry seeing how much its growing GLOBALLY, at least if nothing else, some sort of loan set up for producers to borrow from and make their movies.

I wish i can type the whole article out but i dont have that time, thus to sum it up - it basically it starts off like this ..............
IT ALL started by accident in 1992, when Kenneth Nnebue, a Nigerian trader based in Onitsha, was trying to sell a large stock of blank videocassettes he had bought from Taiwan. He decided that they would sell better with something recorded on them, so he shot a film called Living in Bondage about a man who achieves power and wealth by killing his wife in a ritualistic murder, only to repent later when she haunts him. The film sold more than 750,000 copies, and prompted legions of imitators ........... (economist might published the rest a week later after they get it off the shelves)

It basically goes on to talk about how Nollywoods annual sales ranging btwn $200-$300 million, howeer the themes have such negative impact on nigeria (and africa as a whole i guess). Emeka Mba of the Nigeria Film and Video Censor Board described the typcial themes such as a poor man who goes to being rich overnight due to money ritual or JUJU.

He went on to state how the "filmakers" FEAR THE INDUSTRY WILL SLOW DOWN IF AUTHORITIES DISCOURAGE THEIR POPULAR VOODOO STORY LINES.

What do you guys think. I personally agree with the article, i think the themes of most of these movies are so predictable and its becoming same ole same ole, I can count on my fingers how many themes the stories have - and 10 mins into a movie, i can predict the end. Are movies suppose to be like that?

I think they are soooo many stories to tell and they (the movie makers) should start thinking out of the box and seeing the big picture, I mean have they developed statistics to find out whom their largest audience are and what the audience would like to see (I guess they dont give a *ish about audience cos if they did, the creme de la creme wont be out now). In the beginnning bOllywood story lines were one way like that, but i think eventually they changed - abi (i dont know cos i aint seen any in a while).

Its a good thing the government have decided to step in and help, cos i do understand most of these producers need help financially and there are a whole lot of hungry ppl in line waiting to tell a story and probably give us better themes but have no money or support.

if all goes well and we are able to improve their revenues might triple in 3yrs

This article is a short article yet an interesting read. Go check it out at your nearest news agent.

So the question to you all is, what themes would you like to see in naija movies. Are romance, juju, marriage, poverty, overnight wealth, runs, campus cultism etc the only stories we have to tell.
ps: we cant stop the juju cos KOK will be out of a job

everybody needs a job

(c'mon guys i gotta throw a lil humor in this to wrap it up)