The director is challenging Nigeria's film industry to raise its game by hiring American stars and taking on topical, political themes
Globalisation has been generous with new openings for anyone with an interest in cinema, or revolution. Jeta Amata, a maverick Nigerian director, falls into both camps. Last summer, the 37-year-old thought he'd finished his most ambitious film yet, a drama about the Niger delta crisis called Black Gold. He presented it in July at the American Black film festival in Los Angeles – all part of the plan for a project that, alongside its Nigerian stars, featured Billy Zane, Viveca Fox, Eric Roberts, Tom Sizemore and Michael Madsen. Nollywood was going to Hollywood.
But Amata decided his film was already out of date. "It had to be more current. It had to adhere strictly to what was going on right now – the Arab spring and all that," he tells me.
Globalisation has been generous with new openings for anyone with an interest in cinema, or revolution. Jeta Amata, a maverick Nigerian director, falls into both camps. Last summer, the 37-year-old thought he'd finished his most ambitious film yet, a drama about the Niger delta crisis called Black Gold. He presented it in July at the American Black film festival in Los Angeles – all part of the plan for a project that, alongside its Nigerian stars, featured Billy Zane, Viveca Fox, Eric Roberts, Tom Sizemore and Michael Madsen. Nollywood was going to Hollywood.
But Amata decided his film was already out of date. "It had to be more current. It had to adhere strictly to what was going on right now – the Arab spring and all that," he tells me.
- 2/1/2012
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
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