Lagos, Nigeria (PRWEB) September 18, 2008 -- In August 2008, Cybel Martin, Cinque Northern and Toni Barton, professional filmmakers and Tisch Alumni traveled to Lagos, Nigeria to teach cinematography, editing and production design for the African Film Academy's 3-day intensive workshop, "Film in A Box." Their students were mainly members of the Nigerian Society of Cinematographers and the Creative Designers Guild of Nigeria, who shoot and design most films in Nollywood. In addition, several teenage students were invited to attend the workshops. Cybel Martin recently published the book, "Picture in Nigeria" which contains 75 color photographs of their journey in Nigeria. The book is available at Blurb: http://www.blurb.com/user/store/Cybel

The filmmakers traveled as guests of Peace Anyiam-Fiberesima, the Founder and CEO of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) and the African Film Academy. Peace is also featured in the aptly titled documentary "Peace Mission" that premiered at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival.

"This is my third time traveling to Nigeria." Cybel Martin said, "Peace is one of the hardest working people I have ever met. I really admire her intention to aggressively promote Nollywood and create avenues like "Film in A Box" to educated Nigerian filmmakers. I am looking forward to returning later this year."

Cybel Martin (http://www.MagicEyeFilm.com) is the first and only African American woman to receive an MFA in Cinematography from New York University. Her film credits include, "Sangam", "The Gilded Six Bits", "Orange Bow" and additional camera for "On The Outs". "I was extremely honored to teach members of the Nigerian Society of Cinematography", she continued. "My favorite part was our lighting workshop and discussing the psychological effects of different lighting set-ups."

Accompanying Cybel were Toni Barton (http://www.tonibarton.com), production designer and professor at NYU and Cinque Northern (http://cinquenorthern.carbonmade.com), an accomplished editor and director. Toni's credits include Assistant Art Director for "Hitch" and "Across the Universe." Toni brought over production materials from "Hitch" to discuss color theory, shooting on set versus on location and how production designers can better communicate with their director. Cinque, whose credits include Editor for the documentary "Estilo Hip Hop" and several commercials, taught editing on Final Cut Pro and film-making basics. Cinque explained, "I think what I tried to do was to instill some excitement about the art of film making. I taught them editing but I also went into some basics in film making because editing is a very technical craft."

The three filmmakers became friends while working towards their MFAs at New York University. Anthony Artis, best selling author of "Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide" and another Tisch alumni, generously donated 12 of his books "Down and Dirty Documentary" to the African Film Academy. Before the end of 2008, Peace Anyiam-Fiberesima plans to bring back the three filmmakers to Nigeria to teach their prospective courses and to add workshops in Sound, Script-writing and Documentary film-making to the Film in A Box curriculum.

Nollywood, Nigeria's booming film industry is the world's third largest producer of feature films. In a little over 10 years, Nollywood has grown from nothing into a reportedly $250 million dollar industry that employs thousands of people.

The AMAA awards are an offshoot of the African Film Academy and began in 2005 to reward excellence in film creativity in Africa and the Diaspora. The awards ceremony occurs each year in March and has attracted several prominent American celebrities including Danny Glover, Vivica Fox and Angela Bassett.

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release contact Cybel Martin or visit http://www.rukaproductions.com. The book "Picture in Nigeria" is available in Hardcover at Blurb for $45.

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