Collaboration Will Help Among African Film Industries – Genevieve Nnaji

Genevieve Nnaji

Nollywood legend Genevieve Nnaji has said she would like to see stronger collaboration among African film industries. She recently had her say while speaking on the Deadline Podcast, and fans have been reacting.

Confessing that she had long hoped for more intercontinental productions within the continent, Genevieve noted that she keeps looking forward to the idea becoming a reality.

Stressing that she remains optimistic about the future of filmmaking in Africa, the moviestar added that there is still so much more to achieve.

Her words, “I think my dream has always been that we have some intercontinental production within the African region. And I can’t wait to see that happen.

Seeing a lot more female producers, directors, and filmmakers come up is also very inspiring to me. The industry is barely 40 years old, but we’ve achieved so much in such a short time.

I think we just started. I think, you know, time is still very young, and we have a lot more to achieve.

The stories that come out of Nigeria, I can’t wait for people to actually see the depth of who we are as a nation, as a culture, as a continent, Africa as a whole.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.