Nollywood!

A neighbour brought me a movie this afternoon. I wasn’t  very optimistic about watching it as soon as I observed that it was a Nigerian movie. Don’t get me wrong: I’m proudly Nigerian and I’m not against Nigerian movies. But of the thousands of movies produced by the Nigerian movie industry (Nollywood) each year, very few ever really catch my fancy. I’m in love with classics like Sitanda, Mainframe Productions’ Thunderbolt (Magun), Saworoide… But I can’t stand- oh no, I detest- most of the others. I usually say that if one watches too many of them, the person is prone to mental backwardness. If you think i’m being overly dramatic, take a simple poll of the kids who grow up watching cartoons like Lion King and compare to those who grow up watching Nollywood. Check out the ways people from both groups answer questions…

Don’t judge me in a hurry. I just happen to have a strong hatred for mediocrity. I understand that we may not have access to the same resources they do in Hollywood. I understand also that we are battling with severe problems of piracy. Futhermore, I appreciate the relative under-development and poor technology that characterizes our environment. But then, is there really any excuse for mediocrity? Didn’t we produce classics even long before we had access to the technology we have now?

Excellence is a state of mind! Wealth can determine how many shoes you have but it is excellence that determines whether the shoe you wear is polished or not. What’s the point of producing so many movies (we have the world’s second largest number) when so many of them are trash? Or why produce a part 2 and even part 3 for a movie that has no storyline and is just a waste of intellectual space? Why produce movies that make you think like someone who should have lived 50 years ago when a similar industry is taking our minds to the future?

I would refer also to the Indian movie industry. Have you observed that they have been coming out with some bestsellers? Stuff like “Slumdog Millionaire”, “3 Idiots”, “My Name is Khan”… Check out the storylines. Although I have no doubt that those were high budget movies, it is obvious that those movies were successful because they had very good plots. You couldn’t have predicted the end from the beginning and maybe like many of the people I know, you would have shed a tear or two besides learning a notepad-full of lessons.

I stand by my words. If you want your children to be smart, expose them to ‘smart’ movies. I’m aware of and really appreciate a few from Nollywood. I wish I could encourage such producers even more. But if you allow your children to watch the absolute junk that characterizes majority of our movies, don’t be surprised if their reasoning is slow, sluggish and backward. I’m not kidding. How much can you expect from a child who is taught by TV to always consult the “Oracle” or “Pastor” whenever there is a problem instead of looking for a solution? Or how can you blame a child for lack of creativity when he is always watching products of zero-imagination?

By the way, if you haven’t watched “Sitanda”, I recommend that you do. I watched it about 2 years ago and I fell in love with it. The storyline, the music… very “tight”. I wish I could get more like that. If you know of any classics from Nollywood, you can recommend them to me. I would be quite willing to watch…

I recommend that you also read:

• World Cup 2010 Begins Today!
• The Fight Against Piracy
• How I Quit Bedwetting
• Starting Small and Growing Big
• Nigeria Loses to Greece…