An interview with Nollywood screenwriter Vivian Chiji about Nigerian women, religion and what Nollywood can teach its U.S. counterpart.


Like many in the industry,Vivian Chiji did not come from a film-making background. Originally a lawyer, Chiji got her foot in the Nollywood door via screenwriting and never looked back. She co-wrote “Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” “Oasis,” and “Behind the Melody,” as well as the emotional, “Apaye: A Mother’s Love,” based on the true story about a woman who suffers a polygamous marriage only to be kicked out with her six children when her husband abandons them.

Tell us about the evolution of Nollywood, and at what point you got involved.

Basically as a child, I was very interested in drama. Before the 1990s, we had folktales on TV and a bunch of the local language drama such as the "Mike orihedinma series." But the real revolution started with the movie, "Living in Bondage." It was different. It was the modern day Nigeria and it had a story we could all relate to even though it was shot in Igbo Language.

After that, similar movies like Taboo, Circle of Doom, etc followed. Stars were born, writers emerged, young people had dreams of being actors, a plethora of DVD copies found their way to the market ... and lately we are building the cinema culture. Nigerians troop to the cinema now not just for the Western films but for our indigenous movies. It's awesome! The rest, they say, is history.

Yes and no. There's a palpable male dominance in the areas of directing, cinematography, editing... But as per production and writing; not really. One of the top three movie producers in Nigeria is a woman by the name Emem Isong. She brought a new dimension to movies and trust me, Hollywood's Tyler Perry has nothing on her. She brought class, sassiness, quality and a whole new dimension to filmmaking. Most of her movies make it to the cinema and she very rarely disappoints.

There are others: Uduak Oguamanam, Mildred Okwo, ‎Stephanie Okereke and others. As per writing, women are ‎forces to reckon with. We have the likes of my humble self, Uduak Isong O, Rita Onwurah, Tunde Aladese, Chidimma Okereke, the list is quite long. 

It is general knowledge that in Africa, it is a man's world. Male children tend to be favored more than their female counterparts. Once a woman is married, her primary focus is her husband who she must submit to and of course, her children. Naturally, sometimes her career suffers. Is this still happening? YES! And to an extent, religion fuels it. But then with the rise of education, there's great improvement on the perception of women.

There are women in sectors previously dominated by men and they are not just there, they are making a difference; visible difference. In some homes now, women are even the bread winners. The good news is that with empowerment comes emancipation. So right now, women in Nigeria are beginning to speak up for themselves. They are shunning domestic violence and getting empowered financially. The fallout of it though is the growing rate of divorce. 

Wow! That's a huge one. Hollywood has made an outstanding mark in film milking, so much so it's difficult to make an input really. Their Epic is excellent too, plus they have a million and one genres they veer into unreservedly. But then there's one thing we have that they don't. We make films from almost nothing. Extremely low budget yet the world is buzzing. Why is that? Here we have actors who are not necessarily schooled in film schools, so what we lack in funds we make up in passion.

Now I'm not sure that's something to‎ teach anyone but that's real strength. Imagine what heights we could attain if we had more funding. 

We are very religious people in Nigeria and the dominant religions are Christianity and Islam. It is our way of life and thus it’s reflected in our movies.

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