Letter published in Financial Mail
by Gavin Lewis

SA FILM INDUSTRY CAN LEARN FROM NIGERIA

Your lead article (6-11 July 2012 – “SA’s Film Industry”  refers. Amidst all the bleating for room at the teat of state support, none of those interviewed seemed aware of the phenomenon that is Nollywood, Nigeria’s booming US $200 million (R1.6 billion) a year film industry . It is the third largest in the world, and operates entirely without state support. Operating on shoe string budgets, filming in rented locations and not state of the art film facilities, often with hand held cameras, and focussing on topics of relevance to ordinary  Nigerians, thing they want to see and are willing to pay to see ( now there’s a revolutionary thought) , and is growing exponentially amongst the diaspora (and sometimes MNet ! ). Nollywood employs thousands of people, and  churns out in excess of 1000 films a year, mostly straight to DVD and VCD. A few films are reaching  the art film scene, entirely in their own merit, and without the layers of expensive deployed incompetent cadres the government ( and especially the provinces) in South Africa  seems to regard  as essential for this purpose. There are over 300 film producers in Nigeria, and the VCD discs they are distributed on are sold at an affordable US2 each ,selling an average of 50 000 copies each  per release. One could say more, but the contrast between South Africa’s ingrained  culture of dependency on the state and Nigerian entrepreneurship is startling. No wonder that economy is growing faster , and will soon overtake, South Africa’s muddle of mediocrity and dependence on others to make things happen.