NOLLYWOOD VS HOLLYWOOD: The Journey So Far

Film is an avenue where people’s stories, experiences and culture are shared with an audience. It incorporates both drama and music, sometimes encouraging us to use other senses not associated with audio visuals. Hollywood for a long time, told us stories not just of the Americas, but also of our own culture. They found ingenious ways to tell stories which unfortunately weren’t usually true of ourselves – but as they say, “only the victor writes history”. Thankfully, Nollywood has now started to create a balance using our own experiences, culture and music to tell our stories more accurately to the world. Although, unfortunately, our stories are still tinged with influences from the West and we struggle to get away from it. Tonight’s discussion is looking at how far Nollywood has come, what needs to be done to take us further and what influences we need to shed. This is not an indictment on the hard work that so many talented movie makers are doing in Nollywood. It is actually an appreciation, using a critical eye for the growth and development of the industry.