The History Of Film Development Of Nigeria

From the end of 1990s to the early 21st Century, Nigeria has become the 2nd largest country in movie production with a yearly 2000 movies, second only to India. This article is in chronological order, traces the development history of Nigerian movie and analyzes its developmental features.It is not a short time since Nigeria introduced movie. During the colonial period, colonialists set up film-making agencies such as Colonial Film Department for political ends, and it did achieve certain results in film-making and knowledge popularization. At that time,most of Nigerian films were educational films and newsreels correlated with education, agriculture and health.After national independence, Nigerian government formed its own film department. However, as a result of poor management and imperfect law, it did not play its due role. The film department still followed management mode and style of Colonial Film Department. Fortunately, a group of outstanding film producer sprung up and they established private movie companies, promoting the rise of Nigerian film industry.The rise of Nollywood films means maturity of Nigerian movies. Although video movie mode is not a traditional film making or distributing mode, the theme and interpretation way stem from locals. Finally, the emergence of video films can enable the Nigerians eradicate shadows from colonialism and expess native culture in their own way and create a model of the spreading of video films in the whole African continent.The development of Nigerian movie is deeply influenced by colonial domination. Nigerian government should develop national economy, increase government supervision, standardize film market to ensure the healthy and steady development of Nigerian film industry in future.