Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Another day...

mp3 of the day: The Majestic Arrows - "Another Day"

Yeah, so it's probably an over-literal choice, but at least the mp3 of the day is back, isn't it? Pull out the bullhorn, celebrate like Kunta was born!

It's 6 in the morning and I'm about to get dressed and zip off to work, but I wanted to post something right quick. Someone linked this over on the Naija Rules board and I figured I'd put it up here, too.

A blog piece on the popularity of Nollywood movies in Jamaica

Well, the piece isn't actually about the popularity of Nollywood down a Yard, though it does mention in passing that they are "the hottest thing in Jamaica right now" and stuff like that (I can't tell for sure whether or not they're being ironic, though... There is a mildly ribbing tone to the piece but it seems all in good fun. After all, let's face it, even for middle-class Nigerians, a great part of the appeal of Nollywood flicks often lies in their unintentional comedy)

Anyway, one reason I wanted to put this up is because I've often disputed the claims of Nollywood advocates that these movies are wildly popular throughout the Caribbean... I knew they were being viewed in some limited capacity, but I really doubted they could truly be described as "popular," especially since some of the Jamaican folks I asked about it told me they had no idea what I was talking about, and they have their own local video scene anyway.

So I guess I was wrong. I'm man enough to admit that!

Also, the blogger was fastidious enough to basically break down the dynamics of the typical Nollywood flick, complete with screencaps and a video clip! It makes it easier for my lazy ass... I've been slacking on actually getting around to explaining what a Nollywood movie is for folks who've never seen one. (Um... Just for the record, our movie isn't gonna look anything like that. We hope!)

Oh yeah, speaking of Naija Rules... My friends on the boards there finally found my blog. I had wanted to show it to them a long time ago, but... Well, I was a little scared they'd laugh at me! As I said before, Koko, Denis and I are all on the nonconformist side and we're all pretty much invested in doing things our way no matter how silly and unrealistic our way may look. The guys have told me that back in Lagos, people in the industry have laughed in their faces when they told them what we're trying to do.

Me, I've never really doubted that we could do this, but I wanted to let things advance to a point where we were really sure before I talked about it more openly.

The folks at NR have shown nothing but love, though. We've been getting a lot of love all around, and that's reassuring. At least people are interested... Now we just have to make sure we don't get their hopes up for some bullshit.

Okay, I better get to work.

3 comments:

Nunya said...

y'know...it's funny you mentioned this...
A friend was visiting the other day from Antigua i was taking him around town looking for the usual jamaican souvenir type things..

We were in a store..can't remember the name and i saw a shelf filled with Nigerian (at least I assume they were nigerian) DVDs...and some did look bootlegged...

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

Hahaha. I spent 2 summer months in the Caribbean and everywhere I went (Commonwealth of Dominica, Barbados, Tobago but not Puerto Rico) people were either watching nollywood films, buying bootleg copies of nollywood films or hitting me up for nollywood films. I knew that they were popular amongst Caribbean folks in the States but had no idea....

And in Haiti, let's not talk about the Haitians and their love for nollywood. I think it is great that the diaspora turns to nollywood and ghanaian films to reconnect with home and learn a little.

Comb & Razor said...

in HAITI, too?

hmmm... that's interesting! it gives me some ideas about trying to tighten up the distribution network throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. i don't know if they've penetrated Brazil yet, but i can definitely seeing them being popular there as well.