Ola Balogun, a Nigerian filmmaker, screenwriter, and singer, was born in Abia on August 1, 1945. He is a member of the first Nigerian filmmaking generation. It was Igbo that Ola Balogun initially learnt to speak.

After completing his studies overseas, he returned to Nigeria in 1968 and began working at the Nigerian Film Unit. He subsequently had positions at Obafemi Awolowo University and the National Museum. One Nigeria, which came out in 1969, Les Ponts de Paris, Fire in the Afternoon, Thundergod, Nupe Masquerade, In the Beginning, and Owuama, A New Yam Festival were among Balogun’s first short documentaries.

Alpha was his first feature film, a low-budget, semi-autobiographical picture that came out in 1972 while he was still at Ife. In 1973, Ola Balogun 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 Ola 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.

Ola 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.

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