VIDEO: The trailer for Nollywood Babylon
You may have never heard of Living in Bondage, Desperate Billionaire, or any other works coming out of Nigeria's exploding homegrown film scene, but Nollywood has become the world's third-largest movie industry. In this solid documentary, directors Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal plop you into the overwhelming sprawl of Lagos, covering vast territory at breakneck speed (the history of Nigerian colonialism and economic collapse, the major Nollywood players, the rise of born-again Christianity and its impact on filmmaking), and they manage to do it without losing too much in translation. Babylon leaves you with an intense craving to trawl Google for more specimens of Nollywood's "pop-pop, sharp-sharp, let's-go-let's-go style."
SOMERVILLE THEATRE: APRIL 25 AT 4 PM