News

Film Congress Marketplace to take place in Los Angeles, USA | Berlin, Germany | Lagos, Nigeria | Teheran, Iran | Cannes, France

Ocean, Life, Water: The 9th Green Me Global Festival for Sustainability is rolling out the red green carpet in Los Angeles, CA October 17th to 23 at the Landmark Regent Theater in Westwood.

An expert jury under the patronage of Ralf Möller will award the greenest movies around the topic Ocean/Life/Water.- More than 20 Films will be screened, 10 green presentations, 5 panel discussions, a Film Workshop for Film Schools and an Award Gala will shine in a green light.

An impressive number of films have been submitted for the Green Me Award 2016.

Under the patronage of Dr. Auma Obama, President Barack Obama’s half-sister, and in cooperation with the actor Ralf Möller, a selected expert jury will award the greenest movies 2016.

The question of how we, humanity, will survive the coming years...

Sweet, Oily November: Amata’s Agonizingly Clunky Issue Film

Nigerian filmmaker Jeta Amata’s fourth feature Black November sports a slew of notable American faces in this collaboration between international film industries. Unfortunately, the very names drawing international attention to the project only serve to enhance the film’s blatant heavy-handedness, an angry issue film built on a foundation of cliché, presented with all the prowess of a rudimentary piece of propaganda. That’s not to say that Amat’s film isn’t well intentioned, but his meaningful message is lost in this gross manipulation of the cinematic form, which includes names that promise the likelihood of a cheesy thriller that are instead regurgitated bookends to a predictable sermon.

The CEO of Western Oil, Tom Hudson (Mickey Rourke), is held prisoner in the second street tunnel in downtown Los Angeles with notable reporter Kristy (Kim Basinger) on hand to report the abductors’ wishes.

Entertainment One presents the dramatic thriller "Black November," available in theaters, on VOD and iTunes today.  In the film, a volatile, oil-rich Nigerian community wages war against their corrupt government and a multi-national oil corporation to protect their land from being destroyed by excessive drilling and spills. To seek justice, a rebel organization kidnaps an American oil executive and demands that his corporation end the destruction and pollution. The film, inspired by true events tells the story of how a community rises up and takes drastic measures to make sure their voices are heard. Written and directed by Nigerian filmmaker Jeta Amata, "Black...

In between Sarah Wayne Callies' stints on Fox's Prison Break and AMC's The Walking Dead, the actress shot an independent film from acclaimed Nigerian director Jeta Amata entitled Black Gold. The film, which is loosely based on actual events, follows the people living in Nigeria's Niger Delta, fighting to reclaim their devastated homeland from their own government and a massive oil corporation. In 2012, over 60% of Black Gold's scenes were re-shot, with new scenes also included to make the film more current, which resulted in an entirely different movie entitled Black November.

The film received a miniscule theatrical release in 2012, after it premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., although it actually inspired two Congressmen to pressure the Nigerian government and oil corporations into cleaning up the Niger Delta. Starting today, Black November has finally been given the release it deserves, with Entertainment One rolling out this...

Former "The Walking Dead" star Sarah Wayne Callies has been busy since her days on cable's biggest show -- particularly on the big screen. Besides starring in last summer's "Into the Storm" and the upcoming horror flick "The Other Side of the Door," the actress can be seen in the dramatic thriller "Black November," out today.

Inspired by real events, "Black November" tells the story of an oil-rich Nigerian community that wages war against an oil corporation to protect their land from destruction. Written and directed by Jeta Amata, the gripping film features Callies opposite stars Kim Basinger, Anne Heche, Wyclef Jean, and Mickey Rourke.

In anticipation for her new movie, the actress told Moviefone her 5 favorite movies based on true stories -- complete with commentary from Callies herself!

"Black November" arrives in theaters and is available on VOD & iTunes today.

Nigerian director Jeta Amata's Black November is at once passionate and cynical, a smash-up of tones that fits its story about a politicized, American-schooled 21-year-old girl from the Niger Delta who returns home to head a local uprising — and is soon sentenced to hang. Ebiere (Mbong Amata, the filmmaker's wife and a real talent) is a polarizing pacifist, one part Joan of Arc to two parts Martin Luther King.

Just as Ebiere arrives at her mother's hut, half the town dies in a gas pipe explosion. Despite attention from a nice white lady newscaster (Sarah Wayne Callies), the CEO of the U.S. oil company at fault (Mickey Rourke) shortchanges the survivors and orders the police to beat anyone who complains, pitting cousin against cousin like an impassive god.

Am...

eOne will be releasing Nigerian filmmaker Jeta Amata`s thriller Black November in U.S. cinemas this Friday, January 9th. We have been given a very short clip to share with you. In this clip Barbara, played by Anne Heche, and presumably a cop, needs to know what she is dealing with before any action is taken. It looks to fit in after Nigerian rebels block off an L.A. tunnel with oil tankers that have explosives strapped to them. A volatile, oil-rich Nigerian community wages war against their corrupt government and a multi-national oil corporation to protect their land from being destroyed by excessive drilling and spills. To seek justice, a rebel organization kidnaps an American oil executive and demands that his corporation end the destruction and pollution....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Mickey Rourke tries to keep a scandal from destroying his oil corporation in an exclusive clip from the eOne Films thriller Black November, which debuts in theaters, VOD formats and iTunes starting January 9. The story centers on a volatile, oil-rich Nigerian community who wages war against their corrupt government and a multi-national oil corporation to protect their land from being destroyed by excessive drilling and spills. To seek justice, a rebel organization kidnaps an American oil executive and demands that his corporation end the destruction and pollution.

Inspired by true events, Black November, is the gripping story of how a community rises up and takes drastic measures to make sure their voices are heard. Mickey Rourke leads an all-star cast in this thriller, alongside Kim Basinger, Anne Heche, musician Akon, musician Wyclef Jean, Sarah Wayne CalliesVivica A. Fox. As you can see in this scene below, Mickey Rourke is prepared...

It's been at least 2 years since my last piece on this feature, which I've now learned (thanks to a new trailer alert on my iTunes feed), will be released in the USA after all, courtesy of Canada-based production/distribution company Entertainment One.  A quick recap... In 2012, it was announced that Nigerian filmmaker Jeta Amata decided to rethink and reshoot his political corruption thriller on the ramifications of destructive American corporate action in the volatile oil-rich Niger Delta region. Initially titled "Black Gold," and is now called "Black November," it's one of a growing list of recent USA/Nigeria-style collabs, which stars Mickey...

Forget popcorn, it will be beignets and Naija meat pies all round when the French capital hosts its first Nigerian film week

Even though Nigeria didn't get much love at this year's African film festival, Fespaco, some Parisians believe the francophone world is ready for Naija cinema. Nollywood, the world's second largest film industry, produces more than 2,000 films annually, and now seven of its best will be screened at France's first ever NollywoodWeek Paris. From 30 May to 2 June, the L'Arlequin Theatre in Saint-Germain-des-Prés will host the festival, which is to include a VIP cocktail with the filmmakers, panel discussions and a crafts marketplace.

Nollywood is already popular in France. A new channel, Nollywood TV, has launched. A walk through Barbès and Château Rouge reveals shops full of films from around west Africa. Nollywood still doesn't have much access to mainstream France however, something the organisers of the film festival are hoping to change.

There I was catching up on several news items I tagged earlier today, so I would remember to return to them, when I read that Nigerian director Jeta Amata, is currently in Haiti, where he has been named a Goodwill Ambassador, by Haiti President Michel Martelly (photo above). The ceremony took place yesterday, Monday, February 4, in Port-au-Prince, in the presence of, among others, Haiti Tourism Minister Stephanie Villedrouin, Foreign Minister Pierre Richard Casimir and Culture Minister Josette Darguste. The question that came to me immediately, was, why Nollywood director Amata was being honored with this specific position... Further digging and reading...

It was previously announced that Nigerian filmmaker Jeta Amata decided to rethink and reshoot his political corruption drama about the volatile oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria, Black Gold. The project a collaboration of Hollywood/Nollywood stars Billy Zane, Tom Sizemore, Vivica Fox, Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead), Mbong Amata, Hakeem Kae Kazim and several others. Amata stated he decided to reshoot the film because: "It had to be more current. It had to adhere strictly to what was going on right now – the Arab spring and all that... It was a huge challenge that the Arabs posed to the rest of the world, especially the people in...

Nollywood is in a transitional phase, but its still has some way to go to be truly mainstream

A bright-green kit car marked "51 Nigeria" stands under grey skies, yards from where the traffic endlessly groans out of the Blackwall tunnel. Young black scenesters, wearing smart-casual, pose in front of it, then mill over to the red carpet in front of the Greenwich Odeon, where VoxAfrica, "the first bilingual, pan-African channel", is working the interview lineup. Tall women in traditional dress loll on benches nearby. This is the premiere of Tango with Me, the fourth Nollywood film to get a mainstream release in the UK. PR rep Moses is getting antsy; he gets the cinema to make an announcement that the screening will be starting soon. No one pays any attention. Tonight, we're on African time, not Greenwich mean time.

Nollywood, Nigeria's film industry, is straining to up its game. Tango...

I've been hoping to get the chance to see the Jeta Amata-directed Nigerian musical Inale for quite some time now.  I believe it's been screening around the world since 2010, but it's only just now making its way to Johannesburg, South Africa for a special screening on July 26. From what I've been able to gather, the film will be screened at Jo-Burg's Ster-kinekor Cinemas; first for an exclusive audience on July 26, and then opening for general audiences on July 27. Inale features a very impressive cast, including Caroline Chikezie (Footballers Wives, Torchwood), Hakeem Kae-Kazim (24, Last Flight To Abuja), and Nollywood superstar Ini Edo. Here's...

We took a breather from the awards treadmill this week, and found time to celebrate a record-breaking year for British cinemas

The big story

Perhaps it wasn't as trumpeted as much as it might have been, but we were heartened to hear that the British box-office appears to be in rude health, and, according to statistics released by the British Film Institute, topped £1bn for the first time last year. Of course, we all know about how cinema does well out of economic and social crisis, but still it's good to see that our homegrown films were part of the success story. (Let's see David Cameron try and take credit for that.) The King's Speech and The Inbetweeners Movie played a big part in boosting the British independent-producer sector, even if Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, British in content, if not in finance, was the year's actual winner,...

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.

News on the march…! Held over the weekend, in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State (Nigeria) on Saturday, March 26, 2011, the celebration announcing the winners of the 2011 African Movie Academy Awards (Amaa) – in just its 7th year.

This year’s nominations list boasted an even longer list of awards, compared to previous years, as the award ceremony continues to grow.

Viva Riva, a film I’ve touted on this website in recent days, after seeing it for the first time last week, rightfully dominated, winning 6 trophies, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design.

The rest of the story follows in the table below, lifted from the Amaa’s website Here:

Category

Nominated Films

Winners

Best Short Film Bougfen – Petra Baninla Sunjo (Cameroun)

Weakness – Wanjiru Kairu (Kenya)

No Jersey No Match – Daniel Ademinokan (Nigeria)

Duty – Mak Kusare (Nigeria)

Bomlambo – Zwelesizwe Ntuli (South Africa)

Zebu And...

Over the weekend, as most of us were reveling in Academy Awards thrills and chills, the nominations for another major movie award ceremony were announced, many miles, across the Atlantic Ocean; I’m referring to the 7-year old (this year) Africa Movie Academy Awards (Amaa), which will be held in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State (Nigeria) on Saturday, March 26, 2011.

This year’s nominations list boasts an even longer list of awards, compared to previous years, as the award ceremony continues to grow.

I’ll have to thoroughly scrub this list to highlight as many titles as I can – especially in the feature film categories, and I’ll do that with individual posts over the next week, or so. In the meantime, however, I’ll quickly point out those few titles that we’ve previously given ink to on this website, that are nominated for Amaa awards, including the following: in the Best Diaspora Feature,...

There’s been a lot of talk about Hollywood & Bollywood jumping into bed together in recent year; maybe with the news below, we’ll soon start to see more Hollywood/Nollywood collabs?

Jeta Amata, nephew of veteran Nollywood actor/director Fred Amata have teamed to produce a film that features an international cast of characters, both in front and behind the camera, and that takes place in countries on 2 continents (guess which 2?).

The “epic” film, titled, Black Gold, was directed by nephew Jeta, and produced by uncle Fred, and is described as “a powerful story of greed, murder and corruption in the murky waters of the volatile oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria… Environmental justice and the fight over the control of the scarce oil resources that the world runs on… The line between good and evil is blurred as corrupt government officials, greedy oil companies and violent rebels...

[Updated with full theatrical trailer.]

Though you wouldn't know it from the amount of coverage it gets in the west - i.e. virtually none - Nigeria is home to one of the most prolific film industries in the world, the nation turning out scores of mostly low budget, shot on video films intended almost entirely for the sole enjoyment within the nation's own borders. But from time to time you get a director there with eyes on something a bit bigger, with aims of going international. And Jeta Amata is definitely one of those.

Amata has recruited an international cast for his latest feature, the politically themed action drama Black Gold, the most recognizable of whom is Billy Zane. Billy mostly just looks confused during his brief appearance in the teaser. Perhaps he's wondering whose idea this combination of hair and moustache was. Or perhaps he's wondering how it is that his big network TV comeback crashed so hard,...

[Updated with full theatrical trailer.]

Though you wouldn't know it from the amount of coverage it gets in the west - i.e. virtually none - Nigeria is home to one of the most prolific film industries in the world, the nation turning out scores of mostly low budget, shot on video films intended almost entirely for the sole enjoyment within the nation's own borders. But from time to time you get a director there with eyes on something a bit bigger, with aims of going international. And Jeta Amata is definitely one of those.

Amata has recruited an international cast for his latest feature, the politically themed action drama Black Gold, the most recognizable of whom is Billy Zane. Billy mostly just looks confused during his brief appearance in the teaser. Perhaps he's wondering whose idea this combination of hair and moustache was. Or perhaps he's wondering how it is that his big network TV comeback crashed so hard,...

Though you wouldn't know it from the amount of coverage it gets in the west - i.e. virtually none - Nigeria is home to one of the most prolific film industries in the world, the nation turning out scores of mostly low budget, shot on video films intended almost entirely for the sole enjoyment within the nation's own borders. But from time to time you get a director there with eyes on something a bit bigger, with aims of going international. And Jeta Amata is definitely one of those.

Amata has recruited an international cast for his latest feature, the politically themed action drama Black Gold, the most recognizable of whom is Billy Zane. Billy mostly just looks confused during his brief appearance in the teaser. Perhaps he's wondering whose idea this combination of hair and moustache was. Or perhaps he's wondering how it is that his big network TV comeback crashed so hard,...