Dear Nollywood, Step Out of the Box!

For most people, the conversation about the future of nollywood seems to fall on either one of two spectra: It’s either a lost cause in the eyes of some or it’s a fantasy land filled with a world of possibilities. Those who think it’s a fantasy land cite other industries and cite our growth over the past twenty something years as proof that we can only get better. Those who think it’s a lost cause mention other factors. They mention the fact that the Nigerian entertainment scene – especially around movies and television – does not allow room for much else but slapstick comedy and simplistic film making.

In the past year, we have read varying articles and thought pieces from respectable people in the industry dispelling some notions we have created about the indsutry. There was the Ramsey Nouah interview on Rubbin’ Minds when he mentions how much of this new industry is just a fashion show that plays out on social media. There was the article about the famed Yoruba film actor, Femi Ogedengbe, who allegedly moved to America recently and stated that he’s making more as a security guard in the States than he ever did as an actor in Nigeria. Even iRokoTV founder, Jason Njoku, recently tweeted about how if he had stayed with the original irokotv format (online streaming) only as his sole business, his company would have folded a long time ago. There’s a lot of saddening news about the state of the industry that makes one wonder if there’s even an industry at all.

In order for us to grow into a respectable industry we need to be a space that allows for all genres to thrive. In order to appeal to our young ones and creatives “in the abroad”, and to make them feel like they can come home to something that’s growing, we need to be a space that allows a lot more than we currently do. There’s still that school of thought that only one thing survives in nollywood and that is “slapstick comedy” and I argue that that’s a very myopic and small world view.

In the past twenty years that nollywood has been existing (and yes, that’s a very small number even in comparison to Bollywood’s hundred and something, talk less of hollywood) it has evolved. It has done so through the sheer strength of people but it has also changed to accommodate the different types of people in it (from the new crop of filmmakers to a new emerging audience). Original nollywood as we choose to think of it is “Living In Bondage” on VCR in many parts. It was a traditional language film, directed at a small audience and I don’t even remember if it had subtitles. Yet, people watched. Nollywood over the years after that became simple story-telling on VCDs like “Butterfly” and “Sharon Stone” and “State of Emergency”. Then as the world continued to progress around it and a new crop of Nigerians emerged with western tastes and then we got to this space of what we call new nollywood. Where it produces movies like “The Wedding Party” and creates an audience that wears too expensive clothes and goes on too expensive vacations and slams it on their social media for too many likes.

If you look at it, you think nollywood over the years has changed. I posit that it has not. I posit that there are nollywood audiences in all areas of Nigeria and the world (because yes, the indigenous movies, the Asaba movies, the irokotv movies, and the DSTv new nollywood flicks are all part of nollywood). There is the Mama Put right now in Aba, that is going home from a long day to her small one room apartment that she shares with her husband and two kids and she also watches nollywood movies. Do you think she’s watching TWP? Possibly, but more than likely she isn’t. She is more than likely watching “Nkoli Nwa Nsukka“. There is the merchandise seller in Ibadan with his shop located in the middle of the market  right now who has no customers and is watching nollywood on television. What do you think he’s watching? My money is riding on “Jenifa“. Then there is the audience in Lekki, who drive to work in their air conditioned car and arrive at a high rise office in which they work for eight hours fielding calls with clients from all over the globe and then they return home turn on DSTv and watch? Suits maybe but for the sake of my argument we’ll claim it’s “Castle and Castle“. And the argument doesn’t end there, there are people in Houston,TX who come home on a Friday night and feel like they just want to watch something Nigerian so they open up their iRoko TV app and watch? Your guess is as good as mine.

You will not get this my aunty in Aba to go to the cinemas on a Saturday to watch whatever recent new nollywood offering is available. But does that mean that the nollywood film-makers who aren’t interested in making “Nkoli Nwa Nsukka” should quit making movies? Absolutely not. I argue that we should not limit ourselves. There are Puerto Ricans living in Singapore who love to watch Indian movies and not just that, they pay money to see it in the cinemas. There are Jamaicans living in South Africa who pay money to see Korean movies.

NIGERIANS IN NIGERIA ARE NOT YOUR ONLY AUDIENCE.

The average Nigerian is not the only nollywood audience. Everyone could potentially be a nollywood audience. We interviewed the filmmaker Leila Djansi a few years ago and asked her why she didn’t like to be called a “Ghallywood filmmaker” and her response was  along the lines of not wanting to be limited by the ideas and constraints that come with the name – especially by those who call you the name.

So let’s just be Nigerian filmmakers then, shall we? But let’s target a bigger audience.

We have seen many cases recently of Nigerian movies going on to air on Netflix or to show at international film festivals like TIFF. And this is definitely a step in the right direction, we only wish we had better to show to the world. This is our opportunity to gain a new audience but not just any new audience, an audience that pays and an audience that allows for and encourages flexibility. It’s not too uplifting of a thing that most of the movies we have shown at these film festivals or on Netflix are run-of-the-mill type works. They are yet another casanova storylines made completely in western style, or yet another modern Lagos based love story. Are you really going to compete with the western man on his own turf when he has more resources and more experience in this than you? And you think you are going to come out on top? Good luck.

I believe that with this new found platforms that we have discovered to push our content, we should attempt to give the world a sample of their next addiction so they can keep coming back for more. If we do this right, we expose ourselves to a greater fan base with greater appreciation for art. This not only increases us financially but will lead us to a place where Nigerian filmmakers are encouraged to think outside the box because now there’s not just an audience for it but investors willing to support it.

Of course we know it is easier said than done. Where is the money? The money will not fly from heaven based on an idea. It is left to us to take a risk and make a film that we want to make without concerns for whether the typical nollywood audience will watch it. And then we take that same film, no matter how small it ends up being, and sell it to the world first and not to your typical nollywood audience. Let’s do like Kenneth Gyang has done with “The Lost Cafe” and push our work on an international field.