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"A Soldier's Story 2" Becomes First Nollywood Movie To Be Acquired by Lionsgate

"A Soldier's Story 2" Becomes First Nollywood Movie To Be Acquired by Lionsgate.

Congratulations to Nollywood for another international breakthrough in the global film industry with the acquisition of “A Soldier’s Story 2- Return from the Dead” by Lionsgate of America. The sequel to the multiple award-winning film, “A Soldier’s Story” has become the biggest acquisition of a Nigerian movie since the acquisition of "'76" at the 2016 annual Toronto International Film International (TIFF).

"A Soldier's Story 2- Return from the Dead" directed by Frankie Ogar and produced by Martin Gbados is a star-studded thriller starrying Academy Awards nominated actor, Eric Roberts with fellow Hollywood actors, John J. Vogel and Berit Glaser alongside outstanding Nigerian actors Daniel K Daniel, Alex Usifo, Akin Lewis, Segun Arinze, Linda Ejiofor, Somekele Iyamah-Idalamah, Michelle Dede,  Tope Tedela, Baaj Adeuble and Sambasa Nzeribe with popular Ghanaian actor Chris Attoh and Zimbabwean born actress/TV host, Vimbai Mutinhiri-Ekpenyong.

The film is showing on Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Comcast Xfinity, FandangoNOW, YouTube, Redbox, FlixFling, DIRECTV online and Apple TV.

I am happy about this good news, because this is the Big Picture of the future of Nollywood I predicted in the first edition of the NOLLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series published in 2013 in Raleigh, NC, USA and the movies I selected as the top 10 most anticipated Nigerian movies in the second edition in 2014 included "'76" directed by Izu Ojukwu and "Ojuju" by Fiery Obasi that later won top awards. And as I said in my TV interview on the Morning Ride of NTA2 on May 29, 2021; that with the same advanced digital cinema cameras, Nigerian filmmakers are making highly rated movies of the same quality with the best movies in Hollywood and Bollywood. 

The international competition for Nigerian film and TV productions will increase the appreciation of Nollywood in the global film industry.  The Big Picture is getting bigger and I can see Nigerian movies pulling crowds of moviegoers at the cinemas in America, the UK and other countries and among the highest grossing movies at the box office.

- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima, 

Publisher/Editor, 

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 

247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter

https://mobile.twitter.com/247nigeria

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchimaeyerengozi

Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood Prefer Fair and Light Skinned Actresses

Hollywood Actresses.

If you have been bingewatching Nollywood movies, you would have seen that majority of the Actresses are competing to look like the actresses in Bollywood and Hollywood in makeup, hairstyles and haute couture on the red carpets. They want to be fair and light skinned and with wavy long hairs. They are the most influential models who have made a "staggering 77% of women in Nigeria to use skin-lightening products. The skincare and cosmetics industry is taking advantage of their craze for lighter skin according to a report by the United Nations published on https//www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2019-july-2019/paying-high-price-skin-bleaching

Many of the young women in Nollywood and the Nigerian society want to look as fair and pretty as the celebrated Nollywood actresses like Monalisa Chinda, Tonto Dikeh and Mercy Aigbe. And so they bleach the skin to boost their self-esteem and egos among their peers. 

Bollywood ActressesSara Ali Khan 

Scarlett Johansson

Emma Watson

The actors (both male and female) say there is a rule of thumb preference for fair and light skinned people in the entertainment industry for decades in Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood.

The controversial #OscarsSoWhite campaign years ago on the predominantly white nominees with the exclusion of filmmakers of colour made the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to come up with programs and rules to favour diversity in the film industry and campaign against racism. But colorism is in fact worse than racism, because "Colorism is the practice of favoring lighter skin over darker skin by people of the same race and tribe. The preference for lighter skin can be seen within any racial or ethnic background. Such as preference for  Asians and Africans of fair and light complexion in the film industry. You can see the preference in over 90 percent of the movies, TV series and music videos. 

Colourism is encouraging skin bleaching and the popularity of skin lightening creams, lotions and pills which the World Health Organization (WHO) is warning about the harmful side effects of dangerous consequences, including dermatitis (skin irritation), blue-black discolouration, skin cancer and even blindness.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series.

Fair and White So White Skin Perfector Serum 30ml - For Face, Elbows Knees, Feet - with Kojic Acid and Castor Oil

#fairandwhite

#beauty

Fair and White So White Skin Perfector Serum 30ml - For Face, Elbows Knees, Feet - with Kojic Acid and Castor Oil

A complete range of Lightening and Brightening Skin care products for modern young women of all complexions. 

A Good Filmmaker is A Good Storyteller

"You cannot be a good filmmaker if you are not a good storyteller."

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.

A good filmmaker is a good filmmaker regardless of the gender, race, tribe, class, religion and location. And every good filmmaker should be rated by the quality of the work whether in #Hollywood, #Bollywood or #Nolllywood .

 It is unacceptable to me to rate a filmmaker by the color, class or location in the world.

Every good black or African filmmaker should be rated and valued as every good white Caucasian or Asian filmmaker.

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Publisher/Editor, NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series

mehohome

AAFT is Bringing #Bollywood To #Nollywood

 

AAFT is Bringing #Bollywood To #Nollywood 
For the "Bollywood To Nollywood" Filmmaking Workshop in Lagos.

The Asian Academy of Film & Television (AAFT) is among the top 7 film schools in India. It is located in India's Noida Film City in the National Capital Region (NCR); a central planning region centred upon the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi.

This groundbreaking film workshop includes the production of a short film.

Notable Alumni

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
Gaurav Nanda
Rajat Arora
Uttar Kumar, actor
Mohit Marwah, Bollywood actor
Luv Ranjan, Bollywood director and producer
Arjun Kapoor, Bollywood actor
Kinshuk Mahajan
Kaushik Ghatak, Bollywood director
Aradhana Jagota, Bollywood actress
Hasleen Kaur, model
Ximena Navarrete, Miss Universe 2010

For participation and partnership, contact WAKAATI Network 

WAKAATI TV 

StarTimes Channel 100

Tel: +234 904 693 4427

Are Del-York International and the New York Film Academy not ripping off Ignorant Nigerians?

Are Del-York International and the New York Film Academy not ripping off Ignorant Nigerians?

It’s prohibitively expensive, even though we do need the training. Give us half that price and we’ll get the same kind of specialized resource persons from Asia to provide the same training.
~ Prof. Femi Shaka of the Department of Creative Arts, University of Port-Harcourt in Nigeria.

The nascent popularity of Nollywood, the Nigerian digital film industry has attracted global attention since a UNESCO Report rated it the second largest movie industry in the world after the United States of America and ahead of India’s Bollywood.

The largely homegrown industry has generated millions of naira and created thousands of jobs from Idumota in Lagos to Iweka in Onitsha and the environs in Eastern Nigeria where most of the producers and marketers hail from.

Over 80 percent of the movies are home videos of what would be rated as B-movies and slapstick comedies of typical Nigerian stories from both factual and fictional experiences in Africa’s most populous nation. These very low budget and hurriedly produced melodramatic and romantic thrillers of African juju, corrupt lifestyles and dysfunctional relationships between singles and married couples have become celebrated as Nollywood, the African Magic on cable TV, viewing centres, cinemas and circulated by vendors and incorrigible pirates all over Africa and overseas. Nollywood is the child of circumstance of the never-say-die Nigerian genius.

The low quality of the home videos has made them the laughing stock of Hollywood, but film scholars and sociologists have taken up the challenges of Nollywood as an important development in contemporary African culture and entertainment. To address the problems of the poor quality and unprofessionalism, many local practitioners and stakeholders have launched various film training centres in Lagos, Abuja and other regions, but many of them are opportunists who are ignorant of the availability of seasoned Nigerian professionals and scholars who have been educated and trained in different world class film schools in America, Europe and Asia. Many of them have been teaching at the National Film Institute of the Nigerian Film Corporation for decades.

The National Film Institute has produced outstanding and international award winning filmmakers who have competed with the best in the world and the school fees are in no way prohibitive.

The introduction of the short term training workshops of the popular New York Film Academy (NYFA) by Linus Idahosa’s Del-York International is good and laudable, but the tuition fees are too exorbitant for the average Nigerian in a country where the government is still haggling over the payment of a miserly monthly minimum wage of N18, 000 only and where over 75 per cent of the population live below the poverty line.



How many Nigerians can afford the $5000 or $3500 for only a four-week film training workshop that Del-York International is charging each person?
No private university in Nigeria even charges up to $3500 tuition fee for a whole term!
Why is Del-York International charging US dollars in Nigeria?

The following is the tuition fee for the same four-week workshop at the New York Film Academy.

HANDS-ON INTENSIVE 4-WEEK FILMMAKING WORKSHOP
START DATES FOR NEW YORK CITY & UNIVERSAL STUDIOS:
September 12, 2011 • October 3, 2011 • October 24, 2011 • January 3, 2012 • February 6, 2012
TUITION: $ 3,150 (USD)

Only rich Nigerians can afford to pay such exorbitant tuition fees for only four weeks training.

Yes, the New York Film Academy can charge such an amount in the US and other rich countries in Europe and Asia where majority of the populations are very comfortable and people earn better wages and the professionals earn more money. But you cannot charge such thousands of dollars monthly in a miserable poor country like Nigeria.

“It’s prohibitively expensive, even though we do need the training. Give us half that price and we’ll get the same kind of specialized resource persons from Asia to provide the same training,” said Prof. Femi Shaka of the Department of Creative Arts, University of Port-Harcourt in Nigeria.

There are enough Nigerian resource persons who are as qualified and efficient as the American tutors from the New York Film Academy.

The exploitation of ignorant people is common and big business where majority of the population fail to get information to find out the facts about products and services as available and affordable to them.

The more people are informed, the more educated and enlightened they would be.
There are hundreds of equally good and world class film schools in the United States where the tuition fees are just a quarter of what the Del-York International and New York Film Academy are charging in Nigeria.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Tuesday August 16, 2011.


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Tayo Aderinokun's Closing Shot on Nollywood

In loving memory of Tayo Aderinokun.the MD/CE of the Guaranty Trust Bank Plc who passed on to eternal glory on Tuesday June 14, 2011, in a Hospital in London, U.K.

The Economics of Nigerian Film, Art and Business

~ by Tayo Aderinokun

The world has continued to marvel at how Nigerians "manufacture" and "fabricate" scores of movies in a week. It is reported that but for India, Nigeria produces more movies in quantitative terms than any other country in the world. As joint stakeholders in the development of our motherland, I hope that my presentation today on the "social economics" of the movie industry will provoke processes that could move the industry forward. In the course of this presentation, I will be inviting you to join me as we journey through the past, the present and the future of the Nigerian film industry. There is a saying that today is tomorrow’s yesterday, in other words, where we are today is a reflection of our past and a foreshadow of our future.
The size of our population and the diverse cultures within it combined with the raw talents that abound within Nigeria makes the phenomenal growth of the film industry inevitable.

It is heart-warming though to note that Nigerian movies already dominate TV screens all over West Africa and going even as far as Central and Southern Africa. There is also a Western dimension to this export market. According to the Filmmakers Cooperative of Nigeria, every film in Nigeria has a potential audience of 15 million people within the country and about 5 million outside. These statistics may be somewhat conservative considering that half of West Africa’s 250 million people are Nigerians and according to the World Bank, slightly over 7 million Nigerians are scattered around the world, most of them in the developed economies. There is a school of thought that talks about the rebirth of the film culture in Nigeria. They claim that like in a horror movie, the infant film market was gruesomely butchered at the altar of the oil boom together with other sectors of the economy. The Indigenization Decree of 1972, which sought to transfer ownership of about 300 cinema houses in the country from their foreign proprietors to Nigerians did little to help matters. Though this transfer resulted in the eruption of the latent ingenuity of Nigerian playwrights, screenwriters, poets, and film producers, the gradual dip in the value of the naira, combined with lack of finance, marketing support, quality studio and production equipment as well as inexperience on the part of practitioners, hampered the growth of the local film industry.

At this juncture, I would like to go back a little in history. Film as a medium first arrived on our shores in the form of itinerant peephole hawkers of still
pictures. These were soon replaced with roving cinemas, which began feeding us with doses of American western films.

Edgar Rice Buroughs 1935 film "Sanders of the River" which was partly shot in Nigeria helped in putting Nigeria on the world film map through the participation of late Orlando Martins (1899 – 1985) who acted in the film alongside the American actor Paul Robeson. Orland Martins also featured in "Man from Morocco" and "Black Libel" – his first film, which was never finished but gave him the needed experience. It was however the part of Magole the witch doctor in "Men of Two Worlds" that put him in the public eye. Well before these films, Glover Memorial Hall is on record as having been the first venue to show a film in Nigeria in August 1903. Documentaries on the Queen’s visits to Nigeria, English football matches, Westminster Parliamentary debates, and government-sponsored films on health and education as well as legendary cowboy films soon began dominating our cinemas in the late ‘50s up to independence.
Most of us old enough to remember this era of the Nigeria society refer to it as the good old ‘50s and ‘60s and it was perfect timing for a love affair between Nigerian film and Nigerian music. Sadly, we had neither the technology nor the means to do our own films and had to be satisfied with mostly foreign fare. Soon vast acres of our urban surroundings became flooded with wall posters of alien culture in the form of American, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese films. Our kids caught on to the Kung-fu and Karate culture. Nigerians began to know more about Bruce Lee, James Bond, and the travails of the American Indians than they did about the Wole Soyinka-led Mbari Mbayo cultural group, Hubert Ogunde’s troupe or other socio-cultural history of Nigeria.

Some significant successes were recorded after independence when for about ten years after the Nigeria civil war, Nigerian literature and theatre got introduced to motion picture. Representative of this new wave were the works of Ogunde, a doyen of Nigerian art who understood that film and theatre were vehicles for promoting indigenous language, art and culture. The Nigerian nightlife scene subsequently came alive. Highlife music was the in-thing and the music of the Koola Lobitos, The Oriental Brothers, I. K. Dairo, Rex Jim Lawson, E. T. Mensah, and Victor Olaiya reigned. Ola Balogun’s post civil war flick, "Amadi" took us back to the pre-civil war days when Nigeria was one huge undivided house where Igbo musicians sang Yoruba highlife and Yorubas sang Hausa songs. "Amadi" was an Igbo film made by a Yoruba man and was clearly a glimpse from the future of the film industry in Nigeria. This early example of Nigerian art on celluloid using the best of Western film techniques, was a breath of fresh air even if it was a low technology, low budget experiment unable to impress the market against the dominance of imports which though exotic did little to promote Nigerian art. The film "Bisi – Daughter of the River" was another fair effort on celluloid, which captured Nigerian culture on film. "Dinner with the Devil" was another first generation Nigerian film by the duo of Sanya Dosunmu and Wole Amele. Eddie Ugbomah’s "The Great Attempt" was also another valiant film which was unfortunately censored by the authorities. Several decades later, the late Ogunde featured in Joyce Cary’s "Mister Johnson", a film that did little to elevate the sad perception of Blacks and Africans. Thankfully in the 1980’s, the TV serialization of Chinua Achebe’s "Things Fall Apart" became hugely successful. I also recall the small screen successes of the Adio Family, Village Headmaster, rooster Crow at Dawn, The Masquerade, Mirror in the Sun, Check Mate, Sura The Tailor, Awada Kerikeri and Second Chance on national television and how these productions were indeed instrumental to the revival of the local film industry and hence the birth of the home video culture in Nigeria. Later in time, the austerity measures of the early eighties and the Structural Adjustment Programme that succeeded it, helped in no small measure in increasing the level of poverty in the land. The Entertainment Industry was one of the worst victims and had to move indoors. The few cinema houses existing either had to close shop or were taken over by religious bodies. This accelerated the birth of home video entertainment. Credit must now be given to our second generation film industry pioneers – Amaka Igwe, Tunde Kelani, Zeb and Chico Ejiro, The Amata brothers, Femi Lasode, Olu Jacobs, Joke Jacobs (nee Silva), Liz Benson, Kenneth Nnebue, Richard Mofe Damijo, Zachee Orji, Pete Edochie, Sam Loco Efe, U.S. Galadima, Yinka Quadri, Genevieve Nnaji, Jide Kosoko, Omotola Ekehinde and others – who inherited, without hesitation, the commercial and artistic traditions of Nigerian film and theatre from the likes of Hubert Ogunde, Moses Olaiya, Duro Ladipo, Ola Balogun, Wole Amele, Eddie Ugbomah, just to name a few, and began to tell our stories using the video format. By 1993 when the National Film Festival was held for the first time our film industry score sheet was moderate – about 25 English films, five Hausa films, 50 Yoruba and One Igbo film.

In Western societies, a film’s commercial lifespan would normally begin with a box office or cinema release, then video release, then broadcast on fee-paying television, and finally on public television. Producers and Marketers would then generate the appropriate promotion and publicity to maximize profitability out of each phase. The Nigerian experience with the video culture so far has shown that without piracy, there are huge potentials for making money in the industry. In South Africa, I understand that video distribution usually doubles or triples a movie’s revenues. The video boom is therefore not just a Nigerian phenomenon. Video appears to be the home entertainment mainstay for the world’s developing countries.

From all indications, the future of the Nigerian movie industry is promising. I understand that every day, about three new low budget movies are released into the market. Each film is then replicated into about 200,000 video cassettes and distributed to markets, video clubs and eventually various homes. This process creates jobs and income for the people involved in the production, distribution and marketing of the movies. It is only when we change our paradigm and see film production as big business, that the film industry will take its rightful position in the economy.

The Indian film industry has been projecting India’s culture globally for over 50 years and has remained one of the most important foreign exchange earning sources for that country. Francophone West African films, which get showcased at FESPACO, the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, which holds in the Burkinabe capital every two years has helped in improving the quality and global appeal of Francophone films. As a result, these countries film industries have contributed significantly to their respective economies. The United States of America is the best example of a perfect union between the film and the financial services industries. Do you know that the American movie industry is the second largest export revenue earner for that country, after the aviation industry? Thanks to Hollywood and its spin offs, the state of California, with a gross domestic product of $1.4 trillion, is the fifth largest economy in the world, richer than the combined wealth of all the 54 countries in Africa. Today, underscoring the industry’s contribution to the rest of American society, the current Governor of California is Arnold Shwarzzenegger, an actor. Former President Ronald Reagan was also a Hollywood actor. These American examples show us what the Nigerian movie industry can become in terms of stature and relevance in society.

Let me say that the need for partnership between Nigerian banks and the film industry are obvious. We all now know from the American experience that film is big business. As financial intermediaries in the economy, banks have a key role to play in the development of the industry. Banks are interested in helping to build successful businesses out of ideas and if the film industry should open itself up to the same evaluation and analysis that banks subject all their borrowers to, banks would really want to lend to them. With the support of the financial sector, the film industry will certainly rise to prominence.

Before I conclude I have some questions for CORA. These are questions that banks would like to have answers to before supporting the Nigerian film industry:
• How much is the film industry worth today?
• How much does it cost to produce a good movie?
• What is the annual turnover of an average movie producer?
• Do firms in the movie industry have collateral to pledge for credit?
• Do companies in the film industry have audited accounts?
• Do companies in the film industry have formal structures?

Bankers usually do not start a banking relationship until after conducting due diligence on the institution of their interest. This usually involves an assessment of need and an analysis of the credit risks involved. This is because they want to be able to determine, to a large extent, the viability of the project they finance. So far, our film industry lacks the structure to provide positive answers to my questions. I am therefore suggesting that the Nigerian film industry become better organized, and start to maintain proper records and accounts, engage the services of auditors and have formal organizational structures. When this is done, banks will find the industry more amenable for support. The banks will also be able to:
• Learn about the dynamics of the film industry
• Know the people driving the film industry
• Easily provide credit in the form of loans to the industry
• Provide financial advisory services
• Serve the industry’s domestic and international money transfer need
• Help midwife this booming sector of the economy which has great potentials for growth and foreign exchange denominated earnings.

One should also ask what the movie industry can do for the financial services industry and by extension, for the country.

* Already, beyond being a ready-made pipeline for the discovery of young artistic talent, its potential for generating direct and indirect employment is well known.

* The positive impact of the film industry on the image of Nigeria should also go a long way towards attracting foreign direct investments into the country.

We all know that Nigerian home videos are extremely popular with Africans especially Nigerians abroad. Our films have become ready substitutes for western productions. Through these movies Africans are experiencing a cultural connect worldwide, something which foreign movies cannot provide. Recently, South Africa’s satellite TV company Multichoice DSTV introduced its AfricaMagic channel which shows mostly Nigerian movies to its over 1.5 million subscribers in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. With time, this exposure of our film market can only serve to improve the quality of our movies. It can be said that this is another form of cross border trade, which will lead to positive interest in Nigeria, and all the things associated with our country.

So far, our film industry has evolved naturally, with almost no government involvement or influence. This is a good thing and I want to appeal to you all that it remains so. While Government participation is welcome, it should not be allowed to become a hinderance in any way. Government’s involvement in business enterprises has been known to generally hamper than assist its development.

My belief is that government should actually contribute in the area of fighting piracy which has become a plague afflicting several areas of the creative arts. The recent accord between the Filmmakers Cooperative of Nigeria (FCON) and the Filmmakers Association of Nigeria FAN, USA to bring an end to the piracy of Nigerian films in the United States is laudable and a good example of cross border, private sector led collaboration.

Closing Shot…,
In concluding, let me restate that banks need the film industry just as much as the film industry needs the banks. I believe that the film industry can be viable and has all the elements of being sustainable over the long term. Partnership between both sectors is therefore necessary if the movie industry is to achieve its full potentials. The future of this partnership abounds with several opportunities.

****************

Tayo Aderinokun, Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Bank at the 50th Art Stampede Session Of The Committee For Relevant Art (CORA) held at The National Theatre, Iganmu, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday March 7th, 2004.

Mr. Tayo Aderinokun passed on to eternal glory on Tuesday June 14, 2011. He died in a Hospital in London, U.K. He had been the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc since 2002. He had a first degree in Business Administration from the University of Lagos and an MBA with special concentration on International Business from the Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles.

His professional education included Credit and Relationship Management training at the Chase Manhattan Bank Institute for International Banking New York, USA (1982-1983). His professional working experience was gained working with several financial institutions beginning with the Central Bank of Nigeria in Calabar, where he did his National Youth Service (1977-1978).

He worked with Chase Merchant Bank Nigeria Ltd (later renamed Continental Merchant Bank) from 1981 to 1988. He was at Prime Merchant Bank Ltd (1988 and 1989) as an Assistant General Manager rising to the position of Head of the financial services division of the Bank. In 1989, he set up a non-bank financial institution, First Marina Trust Ltd., which he ran for a year. In 1990 he co-founded Guaranty Trust Bank Plc where he served as Deputy Managing Director before taking over as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer in August 2002. He was responsible for strategic policy direction as well as day-to-day administration of the Bank.

He was a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN) and holds a recipient of the national award - Member of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

During his time as Managing Director, the Bank witnessed tremendous progress and growth and had emerged over the years as an industry leader, pacesetter of unique and progressive innovations in the banking industry. The Bank is now easily acknowledged and recognized as one of the most profitable and professionally managed corporate institutions in Nigeria and has been the recipient of several awards for exemplary corporate governance practices and excellent customer service.

In addition, Mr. Aderinokun was also the recipient of numerous awards as an acknowledgment of his sterling leadership role in the achievements of the Bank. The awards include ‘Banker of the Year’ at the inaugural ThisDay Awards in 2006, Most Respected CEO by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2008 and ‘African Banker of the Year’ by the “African Banker” magazine in September 2009. He was also a recipient of the National Award of Member of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (MFR) and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, Nigeria (FCIB).

May his soul rest in peace.

Infinity TV Encrypts, Expands Content

INFINITY TV ENCRYPTS, EXPANDS CONTENT

As part of their resolve to deliver world class satellite television services at affordable price to Nigerians, Infinity TV will from April 10, 2011 encrypt their satellite signals. What this means is that the honeymoon is over for free subscribers who had over the past months enjoyed free uninterrupted viewership.
Conscious of the economic situation in the country, Infinity TV is rolling out two pocket friendly bouquet to subscribers. The first bouquet comprising of 25 channels goes for N1, 500 monthly, while the second, comprising of 40 channels goes for N3, 000.

Outside these pocket friendly and rich contents, Infinity TV is adding to its already enriched bouquet 21 new channels that covers all strata of life. Infinity TV takes into cognizance the character and characteristics, the flora and fauna of its subscribers’ base hence, the need for the additional contents.

The new channels include BOLLYWOOD BY INFINITY, dedicated channel that brings you the best of classic Indian movies to the latest releases of 2010. The channel also features hot, intriguing Indian soaps and series as well as hilarious and compelling comedies. M GOLD Old school music channel. This channel thrills with the very best and unforgettable classic jams of the 70s, 80s and 90s. The world argues that this age remains the golden era of music. QUEST TV, Quest TV is Africa’s premier fashion, Beauty and style Television lifestyle channel. LIFTED is a Gospel Music and Lifestyle channel put together to inspire, inform and entertainment the Christian folks. The channel is focused on lifting body and soul; also promoting upcoming and new gospel music artistes, showcasing their talents as well as their lifestyles, it will highlight personality profile interviews featuring Ministers of the gospel; Singers, evangelist, Bishops, Social workers and Philanthropists; their personal experiences, spiritual encounters, life lessons, thought-provoking experience and their works. This includes local and foreign content. MOVIE EXPRESS, A 24 hour non stop, cutting edge family oriented movies in English. Movie Express makes your day with all the sizzling blockbuster action, racy romance, rib cracking comedy, expensive epics, curious crime and investigation, high octane drama, space age sci – fi and spicy series. DICE suspense filled dramas, soaps, tele-novelas, talk shows and reality show is what awaits you on this channel. Great entertainment with the popular South American soaps, American best sellers and from the rest of the world on hot demand. VIASAT DOCUMENTARY CHANNELS : NATURE,HISTORY,CRIME,EXPLORATION. ODENIBO (THE IGBO LANGUAGE CHANNEL) – sustaining the language, values and tradition of the Igbo speaking tribes of Eastern Nigeria Odenigbo takes you into the heartbeat of Igboland to discover what makes the people tick – their lifestyle, food, fashion, dance and more importantly the people and historic places. INFINITY SPORTS the passion of sports - the electrifying moments, the thrills, the frills and the fireworks. All the adrenalin pumping sporting action from major European Football Leagues, world best tennis action, athletics golf, cricket, and the nerve breaking extreme action sports, Infinity sports has got it all. Watch live EPL matches, the Spanish La Liga, French Championnat, the Italian Serie A, the German Bundesliga among others.

The UEFA champion’s League and the Europa Cup matches are also live with exciting live analysis. SETANTA AFRICA A foreign sports channel that brings you live football matches – EPL, Dutch League, Belgian League, the J League, the American MLS, the Scottish League and the German Bundesliga, European matches – Nations Cup matches etc, athletics, golf, wrestling (WWE), Basketball, Volleyball, Motorsport, Club TV shows – Manchester City TV, Arsenal TV, Tottenham Hotspur TV, Aston Villa TV, etc VIVE, lifestyle channel adding zest into your life.

Vive is designed to give your life meaning and bring out the personality in you. Learn how to cook international delicious finger licking delicacies from world class chefs. Get the scoop on how to turn your home into the cozy paradise you dream of. Vive helps you discover how to give your good old face a brand new appealing look and helps you catch the buzz in travel, career, health, fitness and wellbeing and much more. Vive is all about life and the style you live it. Subscribers and loyal dealers of Infinity Television must get good value for their money, says the MD/CEO, Mr. Anthony Ikeokwu.

The rest of the new channels are AFRICAN MOVIE CHANNEL 2 (AMC 2) – Movie, series and lifestyle AFRICAN SERIES CHANNEL – powered by Zeb Ejiro, Chico Ejiro and Fidelis Dukar. This channel is dedicated to African soaps and series. NIGEZIE – musical DUCK TV – foreign musical channel KISS TV – foreign musical channel KARENG TV - foreign musical ( rock ) channel FASHION ONE – foreign fashion channel MAGIC TV – foreign musical channel AKINKOGUN – a Yoruba language channel DEUTSHE WELLE ( DW TV ) – German News and lifestyle channel.



~ Ingram Osigwe is the media Consultant to Infinity Television.

Nollywood Missing When Hollywood and Bollywood Dazzled At the Cannes

Photo Credit: Celeb Buzz

Nollywood Missing When Hollywood and Bollywood Dazzled At the Cannes



The highlights of the closing ceremony of the last Cannes Film Festival were colourful. Hollywood and Bollywood stars had a lot to show at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, but no single Nollywood star was on the red carpet. Aishwarya Rai was turning heads at the publicity for Raavan and at the screening of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and another Bollywood sex symbol Mallika Sherawat was in the news for Love, Barack. Nollywood was missing in action, except for Stephanie Okereke whose romantic comedy Through the Glass was promoted by her Canadian distributor at the Cannes Film Market.



Indian actress Aishwarya Rai arrives for the screening of the movie 'Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps' during the 63rd Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, 14 May 2010. The movie by US director Oliver Stone is presented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2010, running from 12 to 23 May. EPA/CHRISTOPHE KARABA


There were few Nigerians at the festival and they came from the new Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), Lagos State government, The Guardian, The Nation and Supple magazine.


"Most of the Nollywood stars shy away from the Cannes, because they are not recognized as stars there. In fact, even if Genevieve Nnaji came, the paparazzi will not notice her," said Hope Obioma Opara, the Publisher of Supple magazine and President/Co-founder of Eko International Film Festival who was at Cannes for the second time.


Hope is the co-producer of Letter to the Professor, a new Nigerian big budget film featuring the first African Nobel laureate in Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka.


Nollywood stars can only shine at local awards events and some events in Africa, but they are not recognized at the major film festivals in the world.
The fact that the richest Black woman on earth Oprah Winfrey mentioned Genevieve Nnaji as one of the most popular people in the world only made Nigerians to go gaga and Genevieve Nnaji was over the moon, but not in Hollywood or Bollywood. Nollywood videos are the laughing stock of world class filmmakers.


The fact is most of the Nollywood stars will fail auditions and cannot face the tough challenges in Hollywood or Bollywood where you cannot use tribalism to gatecrash into acting like Igbo and Yoruba actors do in Nollywood.



~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima


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Nollywood Noisemakers and the Rest of Us

Nollywood Noisemakers and the Rest of Us

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

It was in the book Nollywood: The Video Phenomenon in Nigeria written by Monsieur Pierre Barrot that he called one of the top players in the contemporary Nigerian film industry a Nollywood Noisemaker. Of course M. Barrot knew what he was talking about when he made that derogatory jest, because he was the French Audio-visual Attaché in Nigeria where he was involved in the development of the local film industry and he could separate the sheep from the goats in Idumota and Onitsha.


Nollywood noisemakers are legion and they are well known for their street brawls over bragging rights for the titular positions in their various guilds and making home videos. Then they went over the moon when UNESCO reported that Nigeria has overtaken Hollywood as the second largest film producer in the world after India’s Bollywood. But the last French Audio-visual Attaché in Nigeria, Monsieur Robert Minangoy laughed at the report and waved it off in dismissal.

How can you compare 485 major films produced by the United States to Nollywood’s 872 home videos? Moreover, the figures were based on a survey done by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in 2006. Bollywood made 1,091 feature-length films in 2006 and if you know the stuff and the format of these Indian films, you would be an ignorant fool to compare them to the cheap home videos in Nollywood.

99% of Nollywood videos cannot be screened at any major film festival, cinema and on TV in America or Europe, because the quality is amateurish and Nollywood movie makers have pirated American and European songs and music in their home videos. In fact, it is common to hear complete tracks of Céline Dion or Beyoncé Knowles in many Nollywood movies and they violated these copyrights with impunity.




Nollywood has crashed since the UNESCO report was published and the current statistics will send that report into the waste bin, because majority of the prolific Nollywood producers are broke and in fact, many of them complained of hunger on TV when they were protesting against piracy on the streets of Lagos. They were pointing accusing fingers at the famous Alaba International Market in Lagos where traders are duplicating copies of both Nigerian and foreign movies and hawking them on the streets like cheap peanuts..
Only the well-fed producers are still active and in fact, they are not making up to half of the 872 home videos recorded in 2006.

Nollywood noisemakers can even claim that Nigeria is the largest producer of home video movies in the world, but they must tackle the problem of the poor quality of their productions. If Nigerians want to celebrate a UNESCO Report on being the second largest producer of B movies in the world, they can do so shamelessly, but they are only celebrating their mediocrity and continue to be the laughing stock of Hollywood and Bollywood. It is ridiculous for Nigeria to boast of making over 872 movies annually, but not a single one has even qualified for screening at the Cannes Film Festival and most of them cannot make the box office in America!
How many Nollywood movies have been shown in cinemas?

What we should be proud of is quality and not quantity.

You must improve and perfect your craft and art, no matter the format of the Media you are using.

Quality has no substitute.


HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON NOLLYWOOD:

Nollywood
Nollywood: The Video Phenomenon in Nigeria

Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Art Films and the Nollywood Video Revolution






ALSO RECOMMENDED:

Re: Nigeria Surpasses Hollywood As World's Second Largest Film Producer – UN

5 May 2009 – The Nigerian film industry has overtaken Hollywood and closed the gap on India, the global leader in the number of movies produced each year, according to a new United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report released today.

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) survey, Bollywood – as the Mumbai-based film industry is known – produced 1,091 feature-length films in 2006. In comparison, Nigeria’s moviemakers, commonly known as Nollywood, came out with 872 productions – all in video format – while the United States produced 485 major films

.

~ UN News Centre

The fact that Nigeria is the largest producer of home video movies in the world is not the issue, but to tackle the problem of the poor quality of the productions.

If Nigerians want to celebrate a UNESCO Report on being the second largest producer of feature-length movies in the world, they can do so, but they must not celebrate the mediocrity of their Nollywood, lest they continue to be the laughing stock of the Hollywood and Bollywood.

It is ridiculous for Nigeria to boast of making over 1,000 movies annually, but not a single one has even qualified for screening at the Cannes Film Festival and most of them cannot make the box office in America!
How many Nollywood movies have been shown in cinemas?
What we should be proud of, is quality and not quantity.

You must improve and perfect your craft and art, no matter the format of the media.
Quality has no substitute.

See You in Cannes (Part 1)

See You in Cannes (Part 1)

This morning we were at the French Consulate in Ikoyi for a visa appointment and Fidelis Duker, the COO of the Abuja International Film Festival was there as well. Supple magazine and a selection of Nigerian newspapers have been given press accreditation for the forthcoming 62nd Festival de Cannes. Fidelis Duker is one of the most hardworking professionals doing their best for the sustainable development of the $236 million Nigerian film industry.

The Cannes Film Festival is the biggest and most popular film festival in the world and attracts the top stars of Hollywood and Bollywood to the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes south of France every May, but most of the so called leading stars of Nollywood are ignorant of Cannes. Supple magazine is going to convene the first forum on Nollywood and the Cannes film Festival to inform the Nigerian actors, actresses, marketers, and the general public on the film festival and why Nigeria should not be left of the competition at Cannes. Our goal is to challenge Nigerian filmmakers to compete for the highest honors at the Festival de Cannes.

~ Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima


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