Becomrich0:

My cousin made me meet him once at the national theater in Lagos. He use to work there, he took me back stage, where I saw the man. [size=24pt]He had gap in his teeth[/size] , that was all I remember of him.

Yeske!:
Nollywood is ours,
nke ndi Igbo. Haters can plunge into the Lagos lagoon or River Niger.

Nollywood’s bawdy humor — or fright or fantasy — appeals to a public seeking escape from depressing living conditions. The industry itself was born out of economic desperation during the early 1990s, a period of military dictatorship, low prices for Nigeria’s oil and Western-mandated “structural adjustment” of its economy. Actors and cameramen were out of work because of budget cuts at the national television station. Movie theaters were closed because no one wanted to venture into the dangerous streets at night. According to legend, the first Nollywood movie was made by a small-time electronics trader named Kenneth Nnebue, who, stuck with a large shipment of blank videotapes, decided to unload them by making a movie about a man who sells his soul for wealth. That movie, “Living in Bondage,” sold hundreds of thousands of copies and established Nollywood’s archetypal plot elements: martial discord, greed, a conflict between Christianity and juju, as the occult is called in West Africa. From these accidental origins, a cultural phenomenon emerged.

Other merchants, overwhelmingly members of Nnebue’s ethnic group, the Igbo, followed him into business. They literally made things up as they went, shooting movies in just a few days, based on vague scenarios instead of scripts. Directors approximated tracking shots by pushing their cameramen around in wheelchairs. Quality was shaky, but the buying public didn’t care. Between 1994 and 2005, production in Nigeria went from a handful of feature movies a year to more than 2,500.

“We watch these Africa films like ‘Blood Diamond’ and ‘The Last King of Scotland’ — they’re always from the perspective of the Europeans,” says Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, who has directed more than 160 features. He was the subject of a documentary called “Nollywood Babylon,” which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, and he told me that when he went to the festival, he was shocked to discover that some American directors had been working for years to make just one movie.

Kenneth Nnebue quit Nollywood a few years ago, retiring to his village to devote his life to preaching the Bible. But the industry he established remains tightly controlled by the same group of Igbo businessmen, an insular guild sometimes called the Alaba cartel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/magazine/nollywood-movies.html?pagewanted=all

Baby mama: Oh so Yoruba people are now claiming to be founders of Nollywood industry that began in Onitsha with a trader that spent his money to dub the movie living in bondage into VHS tapes that later blossomed into Nollywood.
Na wa for people o
Did Yoruba movies venture anywhere beyond Yorubaland till Igbos came on the scene and made it an international movie industry to be reckoned with in Africa and beyond hence the name Nollywood
I say na wa o
What won't they claim

Hubert Ogunde founded Yoruwood not nollywood

Warri _Pikin:

Na real wa o, broda !

omobadan: First things 1st, Hubert Ogunde can't be called d founder of Nollywood. But he's one of d pioneers of Nigerian films. Now, calling Nigerian films done before 1992 Nollywood is disrespectful to true filmmakers like Ola Balogun, Ogunde, Eddie Ugbona, Ade Love, Baba Sala etc. The name Nollywood has now been use to mean all Nigerian films. I believe that's wrong. Nollywood use to be cheap, fast made, terribly scripted, no direction filmmaking! For those that are saying Nollywood started with a marketer at Onitsha in 1992, you're correct. That's when d period of crappy filmmaking began. Nigeria film & Nollywood are two different things. One is quality the other is quantity!

Warri _Pikin:

hmmmm, so Nigeria had quality films done in the 1950s that nobody knew about and the world definitely did not want to watch our "quality films" nor give any awards at all. But now the "crappy" film industry we call nollywood from 1991, is a global award wining African film industry which is much sort after. To the extent that our "crappy Nollywood film industry" have inspired other African countries to try and develop their own film industry.
Somebody is telling a big lie here. Some Naija people sabi lie well well o!

0lumide:

My friend comot that Warri pikin user name! You no be Wafi boy, you dey fall hand. Just let the hatorade sipping people be and you don't have to be involved.

What's wrong in calling Ogunde the father of Nollywood? Because he is Yoruba?

Nollywood is just a name there was nothing like Nollywood before 2000 was there? People were just making movies and nobody cared to give Nigerian movie industry any name same way our music industry has no name.

Ogunde was the first to make a movie not some dude in Onitcha. The dude in Onitcha made a movie quite alright but it wasn't made under "Nollywood" either.

Appreciate the pioneer and kill your tribal hatred. Nothing dey warri you so o na only worry you dey worry lol...

Where for warri you stay? no google! Wafi boiz wey i sabi no dey dabble into them vs us crap wey you show here. You just dey kata yan so!

Yeske!:
Nollywood is ours,
nke ndi Igbo. Haters can plunge into the Lagos lagoon or River Niger.

Look, it is even insulting for Ogunde to be associated with Nollywood. The OP does the great man a disservice.

Gbawe:

Look, it is even insulting for Ogunde to be associated with Nollywood. The OP does the great man a disservice.

Nollywood that is all about terrible and over-dramatic acting, shrieking men and women , predictable and childish plots, abject picture quality and piss-poor noise control that can damage the eardrum? What was OP thinking?

It is a disgrace to Nigeria, and an indicator of the corner-cutting purveyors of inferior products we have become, that Ogunde was making quality films back then only for the Nigerian movie industry of today to be a poor throwback in comparison when it should be much more if we are a people dedicated to consolidating on what we have and moving on to do things to the highest standards. I personally don't watch Nollywood movies because they are total rubbish and an embarrassment to Nigeria in my opinion.

Certainly some posters will not appreciate my frankness but I believe that if you cannot do something well don't do it at all. Abeg, OP stop exposing a great man and a pioneer like Ogunde to ridicule by associating him with Nollywood. Find other things to talk about and spare those who are a great part of our heritage, with their exemplary actions, the insults traded on NL by those who are into unthinking tribalism, over every issue, more than they are into knowledge and the quest to conquer ignorance.