[3] 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).
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,[5] 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.
His next movie project dealt with the subject matter of embracing and not discarding African culture and tradition in the search for future goals.
This film, Amadi, released in 1975, is an Igbo-language movie about a man moving back to the village after having limited success and little fulfilment in the city of Lagos.
Balogun reached a wider audience with Ajani Ogun and the success of the film led to an increase in the adoption of stage plays performed by Yoruba traveling theatres into feature-length movies.
[5] Balogun bounced back with Ija Ominira, an adaptation of Adebayo Faleti's novel, Omo Olokun Esin, which was being performed on stage by a theatre troupe.
Balogun followed Ade Love's Ija Ominira with A Deusa Negra, also known as Black Goddess, which he both wrote and directed; the project was a Nigerian-Brazilian collaboration distributed by Embrafilme of Brazil.
[11] In 1980, Balogun produced Cry Freedom (previously titled Haraka), with Prunella Gee and Albert Hall in the lead roles.
[9] Cry Freedom, inspired by Meja Mwangi's Carcase for Hounds, is about an uprising that led to guerrilla warfare in an African country.