Biography

Ola Balogun (born 1 August 1945) is a Nigerian filmmaker and scriptwriter. He also ventured into the Nigerian music industry in 2001. Balogun, who has been making films for more than three decades, is part of the first generation of Nigerian filmmakers.

Balogun studied cinematography at Institut des hautes études cinématographiques. Years after his graduation, he wrote his doctorate thesis on documentary films. On returning to Nigeria in 1968, he joined the staff of the Nigerian Film Unit, which was under the administration of the Ministry of Information, and later worked at the National Museum and Obafemi Awolowo University. Balogun's earliest films were short documentaries: One Nigeria released in 1969, Les Ponts de Paris (1971), Fire In the Afternoon (1971), Thundergod (1971), Nupe Masquerade (1972), In the Beginning (1972), and Owuama, A New Yam Festival (1973). His debut feature film was Alpha, a semi-autobiographical low-budget film released in 1972 when he was still at Ife. In 1973, he formed his own independent film company, Afrocult Foundation, which released his subsequent films. His follow-up to Alpha was Vivre, released in 1974, and then Nigersteel, a government-sponsored project. In 1975, he released Amadi, an Igbo-language film. His next project was directing and producing Ajani Ogun, a Yoruba-language film in partnership with Duro Ladipo and starring Ade Love. The film was a box-office hit and the popularity of Ajani Ogun raised Balogun's profile in movie cinematography and direction within the country. Although his next film Musik Man was not well received by audiences, the subsequent project, Ade Love's Ija Ominira, found popularity. Balogun followed Ija Ominira with A Deusa Negra (1978), a Portuguese-Nigerian production, then Aiye (1980), starring Hubert Ogunde, and Orun Mooru (1982) with Moses Olaiya.