Film Screenings / Programs / Series
ALFREDA’S CINEMA AND NOLLY BABES PRESENT: THE NOLLY BABES FILM FESTIVAL
November 11 – November 12
Nolly Babes, Alfreda’s Cinema, and Anthology Film Archives come together for the first time to present the NOLLY BABES film festival, a celebration of femme fatales in 1990s Nollywood Cinema. The four films featured here are flamboyant, divisive, sensuous, and sharp-tongued portraits of strong female leads in Nigerian Cinema. The figure of the “femme fatale” is not just limited to the genre of film noir: the antics of diabolical women have been a mainstay in the stories of Nollywood ever since it swept the global film industry as one of the fastest-growing cinematic markets in the world. Nigerian filmmakers draw from popular Black culture, superstition, and life experiences to create melodramatic low-budget products as tantalizing as any tabloid or tele-novella designed for instant gratification. Inspired by the popular and influential Instagram project, Nolly Babes, the definitive digital archive devoted to the Nollywood femme fatale, this pioneering film series will finally give New Yorkers an opportunity to experience a dimension of African cinema – one that prioritizes feminine power – that’s rarely showcased within the repertory film world.
The term “Nollywood” was coined to acknowledge the vitality, creativity, and inspiration of Nigerian filmmakers, who have created a filmmaking tradition in parallel to Bollywood and Hollywood. Nollywood has established itself as a force in the global film industry that refuses to go unnoticed. These films lean on genre-specific storylines with a format that screams rapid execution. The inventive, resourceful technique of Nigerians equipped with consumer-grade equipment resulted in a wildly lucrative profit margin, with untrained enthusiasts making fortunes for themselves by capturing the imagination of the public. The four films we’re showcasing here are cherished by the culture that inspired them: MAGIC MONEY, $1 (ONE DOLLAR), BLOOD SISTER, and RUNS.
Nolly Babes, founded by Tochi and Ebele Anueyiagu, began highlighting wayward women in Nigerian films in 2017, creating an archive that expressed the fire inside of Nigerian women in cinema, and asserting these women’s agency. With a vocal following, Nolly Babes celebrates its subjects with striking screen grabs, paired with transcriptions of excerpted dialogue, to evoke the dark feminine in all of us.
Alfreda’s Cinema returns to Anthology, shepherding these deeply pleasurable films, which have been guest-programmed by Tochi and Ebele Anueyiagu.
Please note that, thanks to the technical limitations of their production and distribution, these films are inherently – and gloriously – lo-fi.
Launched in 2015 by Melissa Lyde, Alfreda’s Cinema is working towards becoming the only microcinema in Brooklyn to operate under the leadership of a Black woman with a mission to screen films that celebrate Black and non-Black people of color. For more info visit: www.instagram.com/alfredascinema/
Nolly Babes is a digital platform and creative consulting group started by sisters Tochi and Ebele Anueyiagu with the intention of archiving and curating images and clips from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, a period they have defined as the Golden Era of Nollywood. For more info visit: https://www.instagram.com/nolly.babes/?hl=en
Teco Benson
MAGIC MONEY
1998, 120 min, digital. Written and produced by Helen Ukpabio.
Produced by Liberty Films, a religious outfit, MAGIC MONEY tells a story of man’s enslavement to money. Graced with an original soundtrack by Stanley Okorie, the film stars Keppy Ekpenyong as Sonny Collins, who goes the extra mile to make a buck. However, Collins is met with one catastrophe after another as his devotion to materialism becomes his undoing.
Sat, Nov 11 at 6:00. Introduced by Nolly Babes founders, Tochi and Ebele Anueyiagu!
Gabriel Moses
$1 (ONE DOLLAR)
2002, 124 min, digital
What happens when greed for money blinds a poor family to the truth? What is your reward when good is repaid with evil? This beloved Nigerian comedy, hilarious to the bone, has all the answers. $1 (ONE DOLLAR) is a satirical take on how family ties are shaped by the desire to live in America. A couple, having promised their daughter to an American resident even though she’s already engaged, realizes the true value of love, faith, and home after it’s too late.
Sat, Nov 11 at 9:00.
Tchidi Chikere
BLOOD SISTER
2003, 84 min, digital
BLOOD SISTER is an inauspicious tale of two sisters (played by Omotola Jalade Ekeinde and Genevieve Nnaji, one of the most celebrated of Nollywood actresses, who appears twice in this series) coming of age in a Nigerian city, where scam artists and men with dishonorable intentions cross their paths at every turn. The siblings’ rivalry with each other leads to jealousy and false accusations, throwing their mother’s life into havoc and forcing her to take sides.
Sun, Nov 12 at 5:30. Followed by a Q&A with Tochi and Ebele Anueyiagu, moderated by Melissa Lyde!
Tarila Thompson & Elochukwu Anigbogu
RUNS
2002, 87 min, digital
RUNS features Genevieve Nnaji, as one of four female college classmates. Living roughly and recklessly on- and off-campus, these girlfriends’ lifestyles revolve around scandalous fashions, drinking, and the fast life. Jumping from one bed to the next, they find themselves propositioned to make easy money abroad. Tempted by the promise of amassing enough cash to support their families, their careers in sex work quickly turn deadly, while back home, their friends and lovers have already moved on.
Sun, Nov 12 at 8:00.
