NIGERIAN FILM TRAINING AND PRACTICE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN AS MIDWIFE

Abstract

The Nigerian Theatre has come a long way, spanning well over a century. On the other hand, this year, 2023 marks exactly 120 years of the first film exhibition in Nigeria, an event which first occurred in August 1903, at the Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos. Film scholars have argued that film is not indigenous to any country. Nigeria is not an exception. Film came into Nigeria on the heels of colonialism as one of the agents needed to actualise the process. This means that literacy and formal education in film production and all they entail are products of colonial interference. The University of Ibadan is not only the first University in Nigeria; it is also a product of colonial interference as well. It equally pioneered the first Theatre Arts Department in the country. This paper adopts the historical approach to interrogate the evolution of the film industry in Nigeria from its cine era to the advent of Nollywood with emphasis on the training of practitioners. Its objective is to showcase the role the Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan, played and is still playing as a pioneer trainer in Theatre and Film Studies and as a catalyst to how far the industry has come to its present position. It concludes that Nollywood has achieved a commendable feat in its practice, professionally and academically.