Nigeria Content Online

A three-day
conference on the Nigerian film industry, tagged ‘Reading &
Producing Nollywood: An International Symposium’ commences today with
an opening ceremony at the Afe Babalola Auditorium of the University of
Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos.

Jonathan Haynes,
Professor from Long Island University in the United States, is billed
to give the keynote address ‘Reading Nollywood as Popular Art: Class
Character and the Campus Film’ at the opening. Haynes who has taught at
the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the University of Ibadan
specialises in African Studies, African Film, Video and Literature and
English Renaissance Literature.

The symposium
commencing today and ending on Friday March 25 is being convened by the
trio of Duro Oni, Professor and Dean of Arts, University of Lagos,
Onookome Okome, Professor and Lecturer, University of Alberta, Canada
and Bic Leu, US Fulbright Research Fellow, University of Lagos.

On The programme
includes; plenary sessions, Film and Documentary screenings and
Roundtable Discussions, all centred on the Nigerian Film Industry.

Today’s plenary
sessions are themed ‘Reading the Popular, Reading Nollywood:
Perceptions of the Popular in an African Popular Culture’; ‘Debating
the Social Presence of Nollywood’ and ‘Reading Genre in Nollywood and
Modes of Story Telling in Nollywood’. The sessions will be chaired by
Carmela Garritano, Professor at St. Thomas University, Onookome Okome
and Francosie Ugochukwu, The Open University, UK respectively.

The following will
have the opportunity of discussing various topics at today’s event;
Cornelius Onyekaba on ‘Re-telling History and Changing Perceptions
Through Movies: A Study of Jeta Amata’s ‘Amazing Grace’ and Ambrose
Uchenunu on ‘The Stage, the Celluloid and the Emergence of the Home
Videos in Nigeria’.

Other speakers
include: Anulika Agina, Tunde Awosanmi, Tolu Onabolu and Jenkari Zakari
Okwori among others. ‘Nollywood Babylon’, a Documentary Film will be
screened at today’s event.

Other participants
at the symposium on subsequent days include, Theatre Practitioner Ahmed
Yerima, who will today address the topic ‘Scripting the Popular: The
Art of Scriptwriting in Nollywood’, Documentary Filmmaker Busola
Holloway, and MD Nigeria Film Corporation (NFC) Afolabi Adesanya among
others.

On subsequent days,
Yerima, will be chairing a plenary session themed ‘Reading Culture,
Women and Religion in Nollywood’, while Holloway will discuss the topic
‘What is a movie?’. Leu will discuss ‘Tracking Nollywood and The
Informal Sector’ at a researchers’ forum while Okome who is also an
authority on Nollywood will discuss the topic ‘Reading Nollywood:
Production, Distribution, Reception’.

Barclays Ayakoroma of the National Institute of Cultural Orientation
will be moderating a roundtable on the topic ‘Reflections on
Distributing and Marketing Nollywood Effectively’, while Emeka Mba, DG
National Film and Video Censors Board, will chair a roundtable on the
topic ‘Nollywood in Motion: Practitioners, Policy Makers and Marketers
in the Industry’.