Nollywood: The Next Big Thing

COMtalk: You grew up in the UK—how did you end up working in Nollywood?

Tunji Akinsehinwa: I’m British, but my parents are from Nigeria. Before I worked in Nollywood, I studied and worked in the UK for a while. I was teaching while also shooting stuff as a cinematographer—mostly short films and a little bit of television. I got a little fed up trying to make a name for myself in the UK, so I packed up my flat, got onto the plane and went to live in Nigeria. Nollywood was a rapidly growing industry and I quickly got a job shooting a documentary series for the Africa Channel about African artists. I networked and I met a director who asked me to shoot his horror film called Ojuju (2014). It was the first zombie film to come out of Nigeria. That film did very well, too. It made a few waves and made a name for the director [C.J. Obasi]. After that, I shot his second film, a gangster film called O-Town (2015), in eastern Nigeria. I also shot a TV series for Netflix called Dérè (2017), an African fairytale based on Cinderella.

COMtalk: When did Nollywood really start to take off and how did it get so big?

Tunji Akinsehinwa: Every country has its own distinct visual style, based on its culture, based on its art, and my PhD was about identifying the cinematography of Nigerian cinema. I made a 30 minute documentary film to accompany [my dissertation].

So, some history first: There was a big economic situation in Nigeria [in the late 1970s and early ’80s] where all the money disappeared. Normally, the Nigerian government would have given money to [the major government-owned television network] the Nigerian Television Authority. But they didn’t have any money to give to them. So, all of a sudden, there are all these out of work actors and camera crew. Rather than sit around and do nothing, they said “Let’s go make films.” They started making these films and it grew from there. They would make a film, put it onto VHS and sell it in the streets. It wasn’t particularly successful at the time, but it was providing entertainment for the masses. Then came one film in particular, which really sparked Nollywood’s success, called Living in Bondage. That was in 1992. 

Living in Bondage just took off. It exploded. All of a sudden, everybody was doing it. Out of this bad situation, it just started to grow and grow. It was entertainment, and cheap entertainment at that. And at the time it was quite dangerous to go out in Nigeria because the rule of law had sort of folded. Cinemas had closed down. So everybody was looking for movies to watch at home. 

The films were produced quickly. If you were a producer—or what they call a marketer in Nigeria—you would give, say, $25,000 to make the film in about two weeks, then it’s put on a VHS or DVD, then it’s sold in the market or hawkers are selling it on the street and you have another two to three weeks to make your money before someone else starts pirating it and your profits suddenly plummet.

COMtalk: What are some of the distinctive characteristics of Nollywood film?

Tunji Akinsehinwa: Cinematography in Nigeria came out of theater. The first real recording of any kind of drama was started by Hubert Ogunde, who founded the first theater troupe in Nigeria. There used to be a lot of theater troupes—groups of about 40 or 50 actors who traveled around Nigeria and put on theater performances for the local population. Ogunde realized that if somebody recorded the performances on a camera, then he could get them out to more people. 

Then, when people started making the first dramas for television, it was like watching a theater performance even though it was meant to be a TV show. Whether it was a horror film, a thriller, science fiction or comedy, they all looked the same. Nobody had any idea about how to light the productions. But it started to evolve from there with outside influence from Nigerian filmmakers going abroad to Europe and America and coming back. 

Nigerian cinema is also based on culture. There are around 250 tribes in Nigeria and more than 500 languages, but there are about three or four dominant tribes who are involved in filmmaking. So, films are influenced by the filmmaker’s tribal background as well. For instance, Hausa, who are predominantly Muslim, make films that are very much influenced by Islam and Hindi cinema—there are all these dance scenes.

COMtalk: Are there things that Hollywood could learn from the Nigerian film industry?

Tunji Akinsehinwa: Speed is one—[the Nigerian film industry] makes their films much quicker. They don’t really have any unions like Hollywood—though that’s probably coming—but they aren’t held down so much by bureaucracy. They make their films on a much smaller budget. If you think about how much it costs to make a Marvel film, you could probably make half the films in Nigeria on that one budget. And they still have a far-reaching audience, both in Nigeria and across Africa and to the Caribbean.

COMtalk: On that note, where is there room for improvement in the Nigerian film industry? You mentioned you see unions coming in the future.

Tunji Akinsehinwa: I do think that in order to make better films, we need to increase budgets somewhat. We also need to diversify our content. We’re not really making science fiction films yet, or expanding our genres in that way. It’s still [mostly] romantic comedy or comedy. I think we also need to take better care of the film workers. They work for long hours and the pay is OK, but it’s not brilliant. 

From a creative point of view, we need to stop being so influenced by Western cinema and start making films which are a lot more about the Nigerian experience or the African experience. Also, we need more women working in the industry. Some of the most powerful producers in Nigeria are women, but when it comes to things like cinematography, it’s very much male dominated.

COMtalk: You gave a workshop at the MetFilm School about lighting darker skin tones. In what ways would you say Hollywood can better tell Black stories from a cinematography and filmmaking perspective?

Tunji Akinsehinwa: For a long while, filmmakers didn’t know how to light Black people. And that was partly based on the fact that we used to shoot on film stock, and this particular film stock was set to one particular skin tone, and that was the skin tone of a white Kodak employee called Shirley. All film was literally based on her skin tone.

The advent of digital has changed all that, but even three or four years ago there were still a lot of people who didn’t know how to light Black skin tones. And that has an effect on the actor. Most of the people who turned up for that MetFilm School workshop were actors complaining about the fact that they didn’t like the way they were being lit, and that often when they were in a scene with someone with a lighter skin tone, they were upset that they looked kind of gray or green. One of the key things for a cinematographer is to make sure you get skin tones right. I think it’s improving a lot, but we need to get more cinematographers who are people of color. We can also teach cinematography students how to light dark skin tones. The fact is, this younger generation is interested in that. You mention it to them and they get excited. They want to know about it.

COMtalk: How do you see Nollywood growing in the next decade?

Tunji Akinsehinwa: It’s an unstoppable force. It will just get better and more streamlined, more efficient, I think. Many years ago in Nigeria, a career in film wasn’t a thing. But now, wanting to be the next big actor in Nigeria, or wanting to be a director or producer, is a viable career. I think there are around a million people directly and indirectly employed by Nollywood. Now that Netflix and Amazon are coming in, I think the industry will continue to gain strength. Nigeria also has one of the youngest populations in the world, and they are looking to fill these roles in the industry. It’s not just film and TV we produce—we churn out a ton of music videos too. There’s a huge market in Nigeria, which will continue to grow.

COMtalk: What are some of the films that you’ve had your students watch?

Tunji Akinsehinwa: When I first came here, I noticed almost all of the films we had been having students watch were Eurocentric or Western. I thought, “Where are the Asian and African films on this list?” I think there was one Japanese film by [Kiyoshi] Kurosawa. I knew I wanted to diversify the list. As far as Asian films, they’ve watched the Chinese films Raise the Red Lantern (1991)and In the Mood for Love(2000); and the famous South Korean films Parasite (2019) and Oldboy (2003). I’ve shown them some Nigerian films such as Òlòtūré (2019). I’m also showing them Hindi films, including RRR (2022)—a recent film that is making waves. 

Besides those, I’ve also shown them the famous 2013 Polish film Ida, which was nominated for an Oscar for best cinematography. I’ve had them watch more US films featuring Black people too, even Black Panther(2018) [as part of] discussing lighting Black skin tones. Rachel Morrison is the cinematographer on Black Panther, and I also had another film she shot, Mudbound (2017),on the list. It’s a beautiful film. Also—Moonlight (2016). I’m trying to get my students to see a diverse range of people behind the camera and in front of a camera. It’s been good fun.