Nollywood at crossroads: Making a case of the round peg in the round hole.

The film making community has without doubt developed physically in size over the years. This development has accorded it the status it has at the moment, being the third largest based on volume of movies churned out. The impact of volume however does not apply in terms of the degree of influence it exerts in the minds of the global audience. Some of the reasons for this may have been touched on in previous write ups but there is an interesting dimension to this, which has not been examined.

This is the attitude of the industry’s practitioners. What type of attitude could this be one might ask, it’s the attitude of what can be gained in the short term as against looking at the big picture and striving towards excellence and innovation. An innovative approach has been lacking in the industry from the point when Nollywood emerged as a global phenomenon. Creativity is gasping for breath in the area of performance and production.

The industry has well trained personnel, highly articulate and also intellectually gifted people who can arrest the near stagnation that Nollywood is experiencing. But the challenge currently facing Nollywood in this regard is short term financial gain at the expense of excellence. It is common for trained directors sticking to acting roles and actors directing, a case of role reversal but at the sane time raining criticism on the industry. This is an irony which smacks of insincerity, a reflection of society at large. Nollywood has also ignored the country’s finest for Layi Ashadele, Larry Williams, Taiwo Ajayi Laycett, Ibidun Allison and many more. The wealth of experience and the sophistication which these veteran artists can bring to the industry is not appreciated.

What is also disheartening is what appears as some sort of apartheid in the filmmaking community which divides it diametrically along ethnic lines thus restricting the cross fertilization of ideas and projects. With the perceived level of political cohesion in Nigeria, it is rather shocking to see this form of apartheid at play but maybe the cohesion thought to have been established is not necessarily real after all. Apartheid is fuelled by suspicion and fear. Suspicion of what and the fear of what, I ask myself. Nollywood’s inability to deal with this issue simply limits its potentials and undermines talent.

On the other hand, innovation has the advantage of upping the ante and in the process creating an environment where cutting edge techniques and technology evolves. The laid back attitude shown by the industry has reached an embarrassing level.

Source: Olugbenga O. Adebanjo, movieworld-nigeria.com