This is Nollywood

This Is Nollywood captures the story of Nigeria’s burgeoning but unknown movie industry through the personal tale of director Bond Emeruwa and his quest to shoot a feature-length action film in less than nine days. Bond, is armed only with a digital video camera, two lights, and about $20,000. His foe is a world that presents challenges un-dreamed of in Nollywood’s big brothers: Hollywood and Bollywood. His schedule, insane to us, is the norm in Nollywood, which produces over 2000 movies a year. This Is Nollywood follows Bond and his crew of fifty from day one to wrap as they make a cop movie called “Checkpoint”. In old jalopies of cars and a rusting crew van, they travel from the traffic-snarled, smog- and poverty-laden, end-of-the-world megalopolis Lagos to a small and simple village. This Is Nollywood takes us deep inside a world peculiarly African, yet full of striving and dreams that are universal. Between days on the set, we cut back to Lagos where we meet the founding fathers of the industry, and observe a casting session under an African tree where hundreds of actors and actresses of stunning beauty arrive in hopes of being selected for upcoming productions. Bond and his crew are proud and feel they are part of an adventure that goes well beyond the making of a movie. They understand that Nollywood is one of the very few positive stories of modern Africa and that its success can have profound and positive effects on the entire continent.

Director: Franco Sacchi
Producers: Robert Caputo, Franco Sacchi
Editor: Franco Sacchi
Cinematography: Franco Sacchi, Robert Caputo
Production Coordinator: Eke Ume

Festivals: (Selected)

Winner, Audience Award, Abuja Intl Film Festival, 2007
Official Selection, Rhode Island Intl. Film Festival, 2007
Official Selection, Roxbury Film Festival, 2007
Official Selection, Woods Hole Film Festival, 2007
Official Selection, London’s Raindance Film Festival, 2007
Official Selection, Rhode Island Intl. Film Festival, 2007
Official Selection, Cannes, Pan African Film Festival, 2008
Official Selection, Amakula Kampala, Uganda. Film Festival, 2008
Official Selection, Rhode Island Intl. Film Festival, 2008
Official Selection, Africa in the Picture Film Festival, Amsterdam. 2008

Festivals: (Selected)

SABC1 (South African Broadcasting Corp.), 2008
Sky-Arts. UK, 2008
Quest HD, Canada, 2008
Turner Broadcasting (TBS), Latin America, 2009