Explore the top film-producing nations in this interactive feature. Click on a country to learn about its film industry.

Below, read a Q&A on the growth of the Nigerian film industry.

* Data courtesy of the U.N. and UNESCO. Read more.

Jamie Meltzer, director of the documentary “Welcome to Nollywood,” joins Worldfocus to discuss Nigeria’s blooming film industry.

Watch a clip from the film, in which Nigerians discuss the rise of Nollywood:

Worldfocus: Films from so-called “Bollywood” and “Hollywood” often have distinct styles or themes. Is this true of “Nollywood” as well? Are particular styles/themes/genres popular?

Jamie Meltzer: Well, the interesting thing about Nollywood is that the genres and style keep evolving. It’s a very young industry (15 years or so), so there is no prototypical Nollywood film or genre. At first, films depicting cults and occult activity were popular, and an explosion of those kinds of films flooded the market, and then interest died down due to overexposure. Then, “epic” films — period films about tribes and West African history — were popular, and then the market was flooded, then interested waned…then love films, then action films. It is always in flux.

Worldfocus: How do the production and distribution of films in Nigeria differ from the U.S.?

Meltzer: Very different. Nigeria has the first all-digital film industry — all films are shot, edited and distributed through digital means. This is an industry that exists because of the democratizing effects of technology — cheaper and better video cameras and desktop editing systems allowed this industry to start and thrive. The productions are generally done on the cheap ($20,000 - 60,000 U.S.) and put out quite quickly. They are distributed through home video — DVDs and VCDs — through markets throughout Lagos and Nigeria. For a number of reasons, theaters aren’t popular in Nigeria, so people watch these at home mostly.

Worldfocus: Can you describe the culture surrounding movies?

Meltzer: There is a strong celebrity culture — a few stars that are known throughout the country and that are immensely popular and command large salaries. People love to discuss the films, and I found that they provide a real service to those in the diaspora, linking them to their home culture in a profound way. You can find Nigerian films in African and West African markets across the world. They have also spawned a host of imitators in other African countries, which is great because the success of Nollywood is pushing other nations and cultures to get into the act of making films by, for, and about themselves — a real antidote to the monoculture that often results from the disproportionate impact of American pop culture and Hollywood.

Worldfocus: As the U.S. film industry wrestles with the Internet and other changes, what challenges is the Nigerian film industry facing right now and what future do you envision for it?

Meltzer: As an all-digital industry, Nollywood is ahead of the U.S. in many respects, and even though most people in Nigeria have Internet access — though Internet cafes, etc. — there isn’t much of an online viewership for Nollywood, but maybe that will change.

- Katie Combs

The Worldfocus signature story “Iranian authorities can’t stop flood of Western culture” explores Iran’s thriving popular culture and the government’s futile attempts to control what Iranian citizens see and hear.

Worldfocus producer Rebecca Haggerty spoke via Skype with Iranian film scholar Negar Mottahedeh, an associate professor of literature and women’s studies at Duke University. She discusses the evolution of Iranian cinema and the impact of the 1979 revolution on the industry, arguing that in adapting to government restraints, Iranian directors have introduced a “whole new language” to world cinema.

Watch a clip from an early Iranian film, “Lor Girl” — the first with sound ever to be produced in the Persian language. In the film, which was made in the early 1930s, a girl is kidnapped by thieves:

Watch a clip from a more modern Iranian film, “Char Changule,” a comedy about a pair of conjoined twins — one devout, the other a party animal:

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Himel reports from Israel.

For more:

• Read Martin Himel’s blog: Heroes, Hollywood and making it through the day
• Read commentary from a Jerusalem film scholar: Israeli cinema: Growing up

The young stars of the Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Danny Boyle’s feel-good love story “Slumdog Millionaire” won eight Oscars Sunday night, including Best Picture and Best Director. Set in Mumbai, India, the film tells the story of 18-year old Jamal Malik, an orphan from the slums, who wins big on the Indian version of the show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

While celebrated internationally, the movie has faced criticism in India. Slum-dwellers in Mumbai, where the movie was shot, have protested the word “dog” in the title. Others in India have criticized “Slumdog” because its depiction of Mumbai focuses entirely on poverty.

Journalist John Elliot describes the celebrations of “Slumdog” around Mumbai, as well as its wider reception in India:

As I write, reporters and commentators on every India tv news channel are tumbling over themselves in an ecstasy of superlatives as they try to match the success with words. Television sets are on all over India, including in Dharavi and Garibnagar (see pic), whipping up a mood of national celebration that is usually reserved for cricket victories against Pakistan…

Perhaps inevitably, Slumdog has been widely criticised in India because the flip side of all the success is a national unwillingness to accept anything that is even slightly negative or critical (as I have often discovered on this blog). So both the words slum and dog have been attacked, as has the portrayal of the uglier side of Indian life.

Blogger “Lekhni” believes this criticism stems from the discomfort that middle-class Indians feel towards “the other” India:

I wonder if our main objection to the movie is because it depicts a part of India we’d rather not focus on.  We’d like to celebrate our economic growth and our resurgent middle class.  We’d like to point to our new malls and glass-fronted buildings.   The movie does not show much of the prosperity of middle class India.  It shows the other India that not many of us know very well, or would like to think about - the poor India that has remained poor despite all the recent economic growth.

A blogger of “Voice from a 2.5 World Country“ disagrees, arguing that poverty remains the enduring, but increasingly inaccurate, image of India:

This is the only India the world knows about, and that as anybody living in this country who has a functioning pair of eyes, ears and nose, knows about. How many times in a millisecond must we be reminded that this is India ‘too’? How many times? In fact, this is so ingrained into the Westerner’s psyche, that when my American friends came to India to visit, their first question to me coming out of the airport driving into the city was: ‘We feel let down. Where are all the poor people?’. Because shock of shocks, there is some part of India which does not look like Dharavi.

Blogger Juan Cole finds fault in the film’s focus, not on poverty, but on the crime in Mumbai slums:

That the film depicts an one-dimensional view of the poorer areas of Bombay is undeniable. There are Fagins and pimps, gangsters and corrupt building contractors, courtesans and orphans. But poor neighborhoods in India are a dense thicket of social and economic networks, with a working class, shopkeepers, peddlers, and other responsible if poor citizens toiling to eke out an honest living. The film eschews the urban working class for an unrealistic focus solely on the criminal element. Extortion rackets exist. But they prey on small restaurants and shops. If there were no honest workers or businesses, there would be no way to extract protection money.

Foreign Policy magazine has compiled a photo essay “India’s Real-World Slumdogs,” featuring the thriving businesses in the slums of Mumbai.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user KaushiK™ under a Creative Commons license.

Many Saudis turned out for a film screening of the comedy ”Menahi.”

Last month, cinema returned to Saudi Arabia in the form of film screenings in two major towns, the first public movie showings in 30 years. Rotana entertainment, a group owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, showed its new comedy “Manahi.”

Conservative clerics launched a battle against films in the 1970s, and some religious police today still condemn cinema.

Ahmed Al-Omran is a student at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He writes at “Saudi Jeans” about what the film screenings mean for the country.

Boring Drama, Happy Endings

Cinema is back to Saudi Arabia… sort of.

Rotana, the entertainment group owned by the country’s richest man Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, premiered the comedy Menahi in Jeddah and Taif… but not in Riyadh. It was obvious that Rotana were trying to avoid a confrontation with the the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice aka the religious police. The Commission are much more powerful in Riyadh than they are in Jeddah and other places.

Still, it was obvious from the statements by Ayman Halwani, GM of Rotana, that they wanted to keep a low profile. They were wary of drawing too much attention to the screenings: “We’re worried that some of the conservatives might try to filibuster the opening,” he said. Have you ever heard of a movie producer who does not want his work to get much attention? Well, that’s Saudi Arabia for you, a country so full of contradictions it will make your head go dizzy.

Nevertheless, and despite the precautions taken by Rotana, the Commission unequivocally denounced the screenings. Sheikh Ibrahim al-Ghaith, head of the religious police told the press: “cinema is evil and we do not need it. We have enough evil already.” But one day later, al-Ghaith changed his tone on the subject. “We are not against having cinema if it shows the good and does not violate Islamic law,” he said. Now some people in the local media praised him for having the courage to take a U-turn, but many believe that he changed his line after a call from a senior royal.

In any case, his flip-flopping did not seem to undermine the overwhelming enthusiasm of moviegoers who filled the theaters in Jeddah and Taif throughout the Eid holiday. The shows were all sold out and Rotana said they plan to produce 3 Saudi films this year.

So what does this mean to the country? Khalid al-Dakhil, former political sociology professor at KSU, thinks it is giant step for the Saudi society. “(It shows) the erosion of the religious establishment’s influence, who realized they have to concede,” he told Reuters. I’m not sure that I agree with him on describing this step as “giant” but it certainly indicates the changes taking place in the country. Will 2009 see the official opening of the first proper movie theater in Saudi Arabia? I won’t bet on it, not just because betting is illegal here, but also because living in this place teaches you not to hold your breath when it comes to change.

To read more, see the original post.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user ToastyKen under a Creative Commons license.