The Nollywood model

Oscar Micheaux

Didn't I write something on here about Nollywood, about how independent filmmakers in the US should try the same thing? Did I write it or just think it? I could check and see but I won't.

Here's an article from a few years ago suggesting that African-American filmmakers try to follow the Nollywood model:

http://www.indiewire.com/2014/01/sa-2013-highlights-the-why-cant-black-filmmakers-in-the-usa-adopt-the-nollywood-model-question-162780/

I mentioned here before that I read an article in the '80s in a radical film journal (probably Jump Cut) about the complete lack of films aimed at Black audiences coming from Hollywood at the time and failed attempts by independent Black filmmakers to fill that void. It argued that Black American audiences are too visually sophisticated to accept cheap or poorly made films. It mentioned movies where the camera never moves----the camera moving constantly for no reason was all the rage in the '80s; every shot was a tracking shot.

But it seems like distribution is real key. Anyone can make a cheap movie. Nollywood sells thousands of DVD's of each movie for two or three dollars each. In the U.S., you'd have to get DVDs into stores and sell them cheaply enough that people could buy them on sheer impulse.