Creativity, Innovation, and Legal Reform in Africa

February 2-5, 2016
Los Angeles and UC Irvine
Event Photos on Flickr >

The Center for African Business, Law & Entrepreneurship (CABLE) at UC Irvine School of Law will bring a group of directors, producers, and actors in Nigeria’s film and television industry to Southern California for a week of events, including meetings in Los Angeles with participants in the television and film industry, a workshop in Irvine that will focus on discussing future paths for the Nigerian film and television industry, and the Africa Innovation 2016 conference, which will highlight Nollywood as an innovative sector in Africa.

Nollywood has received significant attention in recent years and has become the second largest producer of films in the world (by films released), just behind Bollywood, and the world’s leading producer of digital video films. With production of some 1,000 films each year, Nollywood films have become pervasive and “wildly popular” in Africa, as well as among African diasporic communities. The Nollywood video industry now produces more films than Britain, Italy, Spain and Germany by around eight films to one. Nollywood on average produces more than four times as many movies a year as France and has double the output of China and Japan. An estimated 11,000 full-length features were produced for VHS and V-CD release in Nigeria between 1992 and 2009.

Co-Sponsors include: Culture, Law, and Capital Center and Center in Law, Society and Culture, University of California, Irvine

Africa’s Media and Entertainment Industry

Feb. 1, 2016
12:00–1:00 p.m.
UC Irvine School of Law, Room EDU 1111

A special presentation by Dayo Ogunyemi, CEO of 234 Media. He has spent the past two decades at the confluence of entertainment, media and technology, with employment experience with Booz Allen & Hamilton’s media and technology practice, Sony Music Entertainment Inc., and BMG. In the past decade, he has focused on the finance, media and technology landscapes in Africa, garnering experience in principal investing, consulting, capital raising and serving as an adviser to the Nigerian film industry on finance, distribution and intellectual property. He has also formulated policy, advising the UN ECA and African governments and regional economic communities on intellectual property, telecommunications, technology, e-commerce and finance. He is a graduate of Columbia Business School where he earned an MBA, and he earned a J.D. from Columbia Law School, an S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is admitted to practice law in New York.

Nollywood Meets Hollywood

February 2-3, 2016
Los Angeles
Schedule | Participant Bios

Participants in the Nigerian film and television industry will have an opportunity to meet with participants in the film and television industry in Los Angeles. CABLE hopes to help foster the continued growth and development of the Nigerian film and television industry, provide networking opportunities for Nigerian and American industry participants, and foster greater diversity in the film and television industries generally. Goals include:

  • Give Nigerian film industry representatives a comprehensive understanding of business, financial, and legal aspects of the television and film industry in Hollywood
  • Facilitate connections and discussions between Nollywood and Hollywood
  • Enhance broader global understanding of the Nigerian film and television industry

Expected participants include Peter Jaszi, Professor of Law, Faculty Director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic, American University Washington College of Law; and Michael Donaldson, Donaldson & Callif, Beverly Hills, CA.

Expected participants from Nollywood include Mahmood Ali-Balogun, director of Tango with Me (2010); Andy Amenichi, president of the Directors Guild of Nigeria;  Charles Novia, director/producer/screenwriter/actor;  Emeka Ossai, actor; and Michelle Bello, director/producer.

Africa Innovation 2016
Creativity, Innovation, and Legal Reform in Africa

Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016
9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Doheny Beach A, Student Center, UC Irvine
Schedule | Participant Bios

This conference will showcase innovations in Nigeria’s Nollywood film industry, as well as Africa more generally, and discussions will focus on issues related to technology, innovation, and legal reform. Featured panels include:

  • Innovation and Africa’s Digital Worlds: Case Studies and Comparative Perspectives, with David Kaye, Clinical Professor of Law at UC Irvine and UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression; Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor of History at UC Irvine; Victoria Bernal, Professor of Anthropology at UC Irvine; Dr. Egbe Osifo-Dawodu, Founding Partner at Anadach Group; and Olufunmilayo Arewa, Professor of Law at UC Irvine.
  • Innovation and Africa’s Cultural Industries: Case Studies from the Nigerian Film Industry, with Justin Hughes, William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, and participants in the Nollywood film industry
  • Legal Reform and Africa’s Cultural Industries: Copyright Reform in Nigeria, with Ruth Okediji, William L. Prosser Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School;  Adebambo Adewopo, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies; Jack Lerner, Clinical Professor of Law at UC Irvine; and Michael Akpan, Head of Regulatory Department of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC).

Nigerian Film Festival

Wednesday–Thursday, Feb. 3-4, 2016
7:00 p.m. McCormack Screening Room, Humanities Gateway 1070
UC Irvine | Film details

Nigerian films will be screened, including Agbonaye (2016) by director Peddie Okao on Wednesday evening, and  Tango with Me (2010) by director Mahmood Ali-Balogun screened on Thursday evening.

Nollywood Workshop

February 5, 2016
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
UC Irvine School of Law
Schedule | Participant Bios

This workshop will offer participants in the Nigerian film and television industry an opportunity to discuss the past, present, and future of the industry. This will be an internal workshop for invited participants. The goals and topics will include:

  • Global business models in film and television
  • Issues related to the production of films in Nigeria
  • The business and financial environment of film production in Nigeria
  • The legal environment of film production in Nigeria
  • Recent Nigerian copyright reform legislation
  • Digital content and digital distribution