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ENGLISH CANADA PREMIERE
Join us at the first of our new monthly screenings!
On February 12th, DOXA presents the Sundance 2009 hit, Nollywood Babylon: a fantastic Canadian documentary about the explosive popularity of Nigeria's booming movie industry. A film by Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal, directors of the award-winning Bombay Calling.
Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 7:00pm
Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour St., Vancouver [View Map]
Admission: $10
For more information, phone 604.646.3200 or email erin@doxafestival.ca.
Hasta la vista, Hollywood! Welcome to the wild and wacky world of Nollywood, Nigeria’s explosive homegrown movie industry, where Jesus and voodoo vie for screen time. Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, known in Lagos as “Da Governor,” is one of the most influential men in Nollywood, a term coined in the early '90s for the world’s fastest-growing national cinema, surpassed only by its American and Indian counterparts.
Undeterred by miniscule budgets, Da Governor is one of a cadre of resourceful filmmakers creating a garish, imaginative, and wildly popular form of B-movie that has frenzied fans begging for more. Among the bustling stalls of Lagos’s Idumato market, films are sold, and budding stars are born.
Creating stories that explore the growing battle between traditional mysticism and modern culture, good versus evil, witchcraft and Christianity, Nollywood auteurs have mastered a down-and-dirty, straight-to-video production formula that has become the industry standard in a country plagued by poverty. Nollywood is tapping a national identity where proud Africans are telling their own stories to a public hungry to see their lives on screen.
Peppered with outrageously juicy movie clips and buoyed by a rousing score that fuses Afropop and traditional sounds, Nollywood Babylon celebrates the distinctive power of Nigerian cinema as it marvels in the magic of movies.
» Official Nollywood Babylon website, with trailer
Nollywood Babylon is Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal's third film.They began their collaboration at the NFB in Montreal. Their first film, Discordia, screened at festivals and universities around the world. Hailed by The Globe and Mail as "the newest wave in documentary filmmaking", Discordia won a Gold award at the New York Festival and Best Socio-Political Documentary at the Columbus International Film Festival.
Mallal and Addelman's second feature, Bombay Calling, was nominated for a Gemini award for Best Socio-Political documentary. It won the Grand Jury prize at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and won the NFB Colin Low Award for the Most Innovative Canadian Documentary at DOXA in 2006. Bombay Calling was also broadcast in over 150 countries on National Geographic International. In 2007, they launched AM Pictures.
» Sundance Film Festival: Podcast with Nollywood Babylon Director Samir Mallal
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