Saturday, August 25th, 2007
WELCOME TO NOLLYWOOD
Free Show!
Feature-length documentary directed by Jamie Meltzer
The Nigerian film industry is the third biggest in the world, but that doesn't mean that it resembles Hollywood.

Saturday, August 25th, 2007
5:00 - 8:30: DJ Stone and Rich Medina (click for details)
8:30 - 9:00: Live Music by the Obara Melli
9:00: Welcome to Nollywood
Admission: FREE
Venue: On the lawn of Fort Greene Park | DIRECTIONS
Address: N. Portland Ave and Myrtle Ave.
Rain: In the event of rain, show will be rescheduled for Sunday, Aug. 26th
Call 718.417.7362 for additional information.

Presented in partnership with The National Black Programming Consortium, IFC.com, New York magazine, Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership & Council Member Letitia James.

Welcome to Nollywood (Jamie Meltzer | New York/Nigeria | 58:00)
The Nigerian film industry, known as "Nollywood", has exploded in the last ten years. Now the most popular cinema in all of West Africa - more popular even than imports of Hollywood or Bollywood films - the Nigerian film industry has distinguished itself by shooting all films (called "video-films") on digital video. This has allowed production schedules to be compressed (films are shot in several days) and immediately brought to market (distribution consists of bringing films to Idumota electronics market in Lagos and selling them for home-viewing). The sheer volume of Nigerian video-films is staggering: one estimate has a film being produced for each day of the year. Nollywood is now the third largest film industry in the world, generating 286 million dollars per year for the Nigerian economy. And yet this vibrant, profitable industry is virtually unknown outside of Africa.

Jamie Meltzer has created a fascinating look into this newly-emerging film industry, exploring its peculiar inner workings, economic challenges, and diverse array of colorful films. Traveling to the country's chaotic capitol, Lagos, Meltzer spent six weeks following three of Nigeria's hottest directors, each different in personality and style, as they shot their films about love, betrayal, war, and the supernatural. Welcome to Nollywood tells the stories of these three directors and their latest productions, while also using interviews with scholars, actors, and journalists who celebrate (in insightful and often humorous ways) the Nigerian video-film industry as a whole, its unique character and genres, as well as its impact on the culture of West Africa and Africans at home and abroad.

"Relentlessly entertaining and informative, Jamie Meltzer's "Welcome to Nollywood" boasts wall-to-wall bravado filtered through African-style entrepreneurship: Hook any of the producer-directors profiled here to a generator and the energy might just offset global reliance on oil. [Welome to Nollywood] is a must for cinema classrooms and fests and a hoot for curious audiences."
--Lisa Nesselson, Variety


The Music: DJ Rich Medina

Choice defines the man. Rich Medina has made a life based on one choice that has transformed the listening experience of millions. DJ Rich Medina lives, breathes, and revels in sharing the type of music that make a listener remember his soul. It is this awareness of soul that brings listeners back time and again to hear Rich spin: heads nod, bodies sway, emotions expand and coalesce. The first time Medina heard Diana Ross’s 1976 hit “Love Hangover” in the family living room, he knew he wanted to be a DJ. When he’s writing music, whether in collaboration with other musicians or a personal project, Medina always aims to inject a universal notion of the need for change. His intelligent blends bridge unexpected song selections that build a collective consciousness of intoxication.

Medina holds DJ residencies at prominent venues throughout the country. Most notably he is a defining DJ at his “Little Ricky’s Rib Shack” parties at APT in New York City. Every Wednesday night Rich draws a crowd that waits patiently in line to experience the Medina funk flow, and for the last decade Medina has been a fixture on the Philly nightlife scene. You can hear his original music and read more about him on his MySpace page.