Nollywood and the Limits of Informality: A Conversation with Tunde Kelani, Bond Emeruwa, and Emem Isong

Introduction

On June 28, 2013, several experienced video film producers met at the request of the interviewer and discussed the latest developments in Nollywood. This interview covers the key topics of that conversation, including producers’ reactions to the attention of international media, the changing expectations of Nigerian audiences, some persistent obstacles to video distribution, and the hope among some producers for the revival of neighborhood cinemas in Nigeria.

On a soggy Lagos evening in late June, the height of the rainy season, three veteran filmmakers gathered for dinner and friendly debate on the latest developments in Nollywood. I invited these filmmakers, each from different corners of the industry and each with a long track record, anxiously expecting that our conversation might capture an image of Nollywood from different angles. Over the past year, I had often met individually with these filmmakers as part of my dissertation research on Nigerian cinema and the city of Lagos. I knew from our past conversations that the name “Nollywood” gives a deceptive impression of uniformity to an industry that, in reality, comprises vastly divergent filmmaking practices. But to my surprise, our group interview revealed that for Nollywood filmmakers, any way you look at it, the economics of filmmaking are center frame today.

Filmmakers have good reason to be fed up with Nollywood’s erratic distribution system in particular as it keeps producers financially dependent on marketers and vulnerable to piracy. As budgets, production values, and sales all dwindle, the chasm separating movie producers from formal financial institutions and distribution platforms seems to widen. The government’s efforts to intervene have been criticized by those Nollywood professionals who rightly guard their independent status as a point of pride.

Tunde Kelani worked his way from the bottom up, beginning as a cameraman with the Nigerian Television Authority. After attending the London International Film School in 1976, Kelani returned home to work as an assistant with Nigerian cinema’s pioneers, the likes of Ola Balogun, Herbert Ogunde, Moses Olaiya, and Ade Afolayan. In 1992, Kelani founded Mainframe Studios and has since produced a steady stream of hit films, exceptional both for their story and technique: Ti Oluwa Nile (1993), Saworoide (1999), Thunder Bolt: Magun (2001), Agogo Eewo (2002), The Campus Queen (2004), and Arugba (2009). Over the last two decades, Kelani has become famous at home and abroad for tirelessly promoting Yoruba language and culture in his films.

An old hand at Nollywood-style production, Bond Emeruwa co-directed and produced the classic Mortal Inheritance (1996), among other titles such as Sleeping with the Enemy (2004) and Check Point (2007). Emeruwa was the subject of Franco Sacchi’s documentary This Is Nollywood (2007), a project that gave birth to a Nigerian-American film training partnership called Nollywood Workshops which Emeruwa still co-directs. In recent years, Emeruwa has sought to make an impact through policy advocacy, first as the president of the Directors Guild of Nigeria (2007–2011) and then as chairman of the Congress of Guilds and Associations (CONGA, 2010–2013). Emeruwa continued to produce throughout his tenure, and he will soon release a new film titled Hidden Hunger.

Emem Isong studied theater arts at the University of Calabar before breaking into Nollywood in 1994 as the coproducer of Jezebel, an early Nollywood blockbuster. She struck out on her own in 1996 with Breaking Point and independently produced five films before founding her own production and distribution company called Royal Arts Academy in 2008. Isong’s romantic comedies and dramas feature a young generation of celebrity actors like Genevieve Nnaji, Ramsey Nouah, Uche Jombo, and Desmond Elliot, which undoubtedly boosts the films’ success at cinemas and in video markets.

With the usual Friday gridlock shunting by outside the restaurant window, we had ample time to discuss topics ranging from the global reception of Nollywood movies, to women’s roles in the industry, to the recent Nollywood stimulus packages conceived by the Nigerian federal government. The table hummed with subdued laughter as we all indulged the utopian hope that soon a million Nigerians a day...