Video film era

The Video film era, also known as the home video era, is a period in Nigerian cinema, typically from the late 1980s/early 1990s to mid 2010s, when Nigerian films were made using affordable video format. The video boom era emerged after the downturn of the Golden era of the Nigerian cinema in the late 1980s. The term "Home video" stems from the concept of staying at home to watch the films, in contrast to films of the Golden Age which were watched at the movie theatres.

The beginnings of the video film market in Nigeria is traced back to the 1980s when television productions thrived. Many of the television productions often find their ways into VHS, leading to the development of a small scale informal video trade. This method was adopted and built on by producers and distributors at Alaba market to reinvent the film industry which was at the time facing a major decline. The first film produced on video in Nigeria is 1988's Soso Meji, produced by Ade Ajiboye. Subsequently, Alade Aromire produced Ekun (1989) on video. However, the boom experienced in this era is generally believed to have been kick started by Kenneth Nnebue's Living in Bondage (1992), although some historians claim otherwise.

This era marked an all-time peak in the number of Nigerian film productions. As at 2004, at least four to five films were produced every day in Nigeria, and the movies already dominated television screens across the African continent and by extension, the Caribbeans and the diaspora, with the movies significantly influencing cultures in many African nations, and the film actors becoming household names across the continent. The boom also led to backlash against Nigerian films in several countries, who supposedly wanted to prevent "recolonization" by Nigeria (or "Nigerialization of Africa"). There have been reported cases of raids on shops selling Nigerian films, and Governments who have introduced protectionist measures, such as introducing spurious taxes for production houses and/or actors who want to shoot films in their countries, as well as outright banning of Nigerian films.

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