Nollywood USA emerging

Cameras have stopped rolling. Actors lean against the bay windows overlooking the swimming pool.“I’m human!” shouts the movie star, Yvonne Nelson. “I can complain if I want to complain. I am not a robot.“No one can tell me what to do on my set!” warns the director, John Uche, a Nigerian who lives in Upper […]

Cameras have stopped rolling. Actors lean against the bay windows overlooking the swimming pool.
“I’m human!” shouts the movie star, Yvonne Nelson. “I can complain if I want to complain. I am not a robot.
“No one can tell me what to do on my set!” warns the director, John Uche, a Nigerian who lives in Upper Marlboro. “I’ve directed bigger actors than you.”
The actress spins and storms up a circular staircase, retreating to her bedroom lair and halting production.
This could be a disaster for this Nollywood movie. Filming has to be completed in three weeks. If the star quits, thousands of dollars would be down the tube. The other actors — some of the biggest names in Africa have flown in from Nigeria and Ghana — will have wasted a trip. And the producer, Koby Maxwell, an award-winning Ghanaian musician turned moviemaker, will lose investors’ money.
Maxwell eyes the scene from the mansion’s kitchen, where he is peeling green plantains to boil for the cast’s dinner. Besides obtaining investors, writing the story, locking down actors and locations, and working with crew members on a major Nollywood production, he also has to cook supper.
As he rinses and slices, he tries not to show his worry. He has slept only two hours at a time in the past few weeks, worried about production, worried about accommodating actors, worried about filming on a shoestring budget, he cannot afford to lose this actress or this director. Everything is riding on ‘One Night in Vegas’, a movie Maxwell hopes will raise the bar on Nollywood production values.
The next three weeks will test his dream. While Hollywood dreamers wait to be discovered, Nollywood waits for no one.
Nollywood, the colloquial name used to describe the Nigerian film industry, is the second-biggest movie industry in the world in terms of number of movies made. The N79.5billion ($500 million) business churns out hundreds a year, second in film production behind India’s Bollywood. Hollywood comes in third.
According to a 2012 UNESCO survey, India produced 1,255 feature-length movies in 2011. Nigeria produced 997 movies in video format; and Hollywood produced 819films.
The hottest Nollywood actors earn as much as $10,000 per movie. Some earn N636, 000 ($4,000) or N795, 000 ($5,000). Some make more than 50 movies a year, rolling out productions one week after the next with a swiftness that would make a Hollywood actor’s head spin.
Nollywood has swept into Cameroon, the Caribbean and Ghana, which calls its industry Ghollywood. Now Nollywood actors and filmmakers have started making movies in the United States . They call it Nollywood USA.
“We are trying to make the African filmmaking industry a force to be reckoned with worldwide,” said Majid Michel, a Ghanaian who is one of the most acclaimed actors in Africa. He recently traveled to Washington, New York and finally Philadelphia, where he received a humanitarian award from the city council for his contributions to Africa’s film industry and for building clean-water wells.
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