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Introduction Film had its first stroll into Nigeria in August 1903 via instrumentality of Indian Lebanese merchants (Omatsola, 1999) whose sole motivation was economic rather than cultural (Okome, 1991). Opubor, Nwuneli and Oreh (1979) note that the medium of film was itself still new in those days, and still technically in its infancy; content was largely documentary. But in spite of this, Okome (1991) reports that it was magic of moment for people to see moving pictures, and for many years continued to be shown to full houses in Lagos, and ... was commended for relieving monotony of Lagos life through interesting and innocent entertainment (Opubor and Nwuneli,1979). The first moving flick in Nigeria came through Balboa and Company, a Spanish firm, in 1903 and toured West African countries. It was a silent film that predated The Jazz Singers, first of talking pictures. The success of this exhibition encouraged other merchants, notably Stanley D. Jones and Albuerio based in Lagos. At this period, cinema activities were limited to Lagos before it spread to other parts of then Western Nigeria; Ibadan in 1921 and Ijebu ode in 1929 (Okome, 1991). Ekwuazi (1991) observes that film has evolved from three crucial socioeconomic stages in Nigeria: colonial/independence period; post independence period; and post Indigenization Decree period. The colonial period enjoyed combined efforts of colonial government and church. The colonial government established colonial film unit (CFU) during World War II with sole responsibility of producing films for colonies with objectives of: showing/ convincing colonies that they and English had a common enemy in Germans; to this end, about one quarter of all films made by CFU were war-related to encourage communal development in colonies (Village Development is representative of this group); and to show outside world excellent work being done in hearten parts under aegis of Union Jack (Daybreak in Udi) (Ekwuazi 1991). And missionaries, on their own, were motivated by passion for evangelical/religious films with aim of integrating or acculturating their converts into Christian fold. Hence, film exhibition in Nigeria took two forms. First government and church operated through mobile film units (a van), a 16mm projector, a reel of 16mm film, and a motion picture screen. And second, commercial distributors operated through showings in big halls and film theatres with films brought in through British Council in London and Crown Film Unit. These films were meant to condition audience to civilization (Obioha, 2001). Thus, films during colonial era were used to entrench influence of colonialists in name of civilization to detriment of indigenous cultural development. And church missionaries used film as a religion enforcer to push Christianity down throats of people, creating a chaotic situation in which new religion attempted to swallow up indigenous religions (Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart intelligently reports on this devastating effect of Christianity on African religions and culture). Correspondingly, 1960 independence ushered in a new phase in film development. With indigenous government still in place, there was an increasing need to re-define geographical entity called Nigeria and build a new national consciousness, detached from colonial framework on which nation had previously been pivoted. Conversely, a film division was established under Federal Ministry of Information and funded to produce documentary films about post-independent Nigeria for distribution within and outside country. And as a result, regional and state governments joined crusade, which gave birth to a host of home-grown documentaries in contrast to pre-colonial, mainly imported films. …
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