AFRICAN CINEMA AND NOLLYWOOD (original) (raw)
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Nollywood and the home video revolution: implications for marketing videofilm in Africa
International Journal of Emerging Markets, 2008
Purpose -In the last 15 years, Nigeria has developed a feature film industry based on video and video compact disc distribution which currently produces over 600 films a year making Nigeria (in terms of numbers) one of the largest film producing nations in the world. English language films (Nollywood) have become a dominant media form all over the African continent. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the implications of this phenomenon for marketing video film in Africa, and examine the structure of the industry. Design/methodology/approach -Using the case study method, the paper examines how a technological innovation such as video home system (VHS) is being used in ways never imagined or intended by the innovators. Consequently, the emergence and proliferation of inexpensive VHS video tape recorders have led to the growth of video-based movie production in several African countries, especially Nigeria. Findings -It is hoped that findings of this case study will provide the basis for future scholarly analysis of the economy of the Nollywood industry, and also provide a template for practitioners to engage in future research in video film in Africa. Originality/value -There have been no studies of Nollywood published to date.
Videastes vs. Cineastes: Sub-Saharan African Cinema and its "schizophrenic industry."
Spectator 32. 2 (Fall 2012): 8-19., 2012
Nigeria has witnessed an unprecedented boost in production, with feature films directly shot and released on video format. These Nollywood movies have met tremendous success not only in Nigeria, but also in most of black Africa. Video filmmaking has become the alternative solution par excellence to traditional African cinema on the continent. Yet, instead of being unanimously welcomed and appreciated by all creators, the video boom has caused a palpable schism in the African film environment, which sees the videastes (those who work on video/digital) competing with the cineastes (those who work on celluloid) in redefining African cinema. Labouba offers a survey of the disparities between the two entities, foregrounding their opposite takes on African cinema, their antagonistic modes of functioning, as well as their contrasting relationships with African audiences and international festivals. All these dichotomies reveal why video filmmaking has become so successful in creating an African cinema for African audiences.
2019
In this article, I systematically look at transnational video film flows and the emergence of local video film industries in key hubs for the physical distribution of video films in major cities of Kiswahili-speaking East Africa.1 There is evidence of decentralized processes of homogenization: pirated Hollywood films, and, to varying degrees, films from Hong Kong, Bollywood and Nollywood were available in all hubs,2 although they especially dominate the smaller markets. In addition to this homogenous flow, in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Kampala, there are also processes adding heterogenity to the markets: oral translations and emerging new video film industries inspired by the Nollywood business model (Riverwood, Bongowood, Ugawood).3 In the late 2000s, this caused a decline in the popularity of Nollywood video films on these markets. After a short boom, these new industries themselves suffered from the prevailing media piracy and from the growing popularity of local and Nollywood co...
2011
While conducting my research on the Nigerian video industry over the past few years, I often had the impression to fi nd myself in front of an object of study that implicitly resisted defi nition. While, on the one hand, one could say that all research object challenges and resists the researcher's attempt to classify and encapsulate it in theoretically coherent discourses, in the case of the Nigerian video industry I had the feeling that discursive practices were playing a particular role. Throughout my research I in fact observed a particular tension between the way the video industry was discussed and represented, both locally and internationally, and the way the industry itself was evolving and transforming over time.
The cover photo of Nollywood: The Creation of Nigerian Film Genres, taken by the author of the book, Jonathan Haynes, shows a small video shop stacked with hundreds and hundreds of unique Video Compact Discs (VCDs) with their typical full-colour jackets. Almost no single inch is left unused to pile up the incredible amount of stories and images. It would take several life times to watch them, let alone to order them according to genre, author, period or region. Indeed, in this entropy of plots, dramas and sounds, the shop does not provide a single direction or category to make the buyer's choice easier. The only 'order' we might assume is that those VCDs stacked on the highest shelves must be older than those heaped up on the floor, the latter blocking passage to the former and obstructing the possibility for an archaeology of Nollywood.
African cinema in the throes of commercialism and populism
In A. Ojebode, T. Adegbola, A. D. Mekonnen, & E. C. Maractho, Camera, commerce and conscience: Afrowood and the crisis of purpose (pp. 165-181). Ibadan, Nigeria: Greenminds Publishers., 2019
The rapid development in Africa of what has been termed video filmmaking has been widely commented upon. Unlike in the previous phase of celluloid filmmaking, the films being made are widely accessible and have captured the imagination of wide swathes of the populace thanks to their populist themed approach. However, these films are often treated with disdain by critics who are scornful of its commercial bent. For such critics, this cinema is not an authentically African cinema. But the very commercialism and the populist approach that the critics condemn are important factors that have encouraged the increase of filmmaking in Africa. Thanks to these very factors, there is a greater awareness of African produced films both within and outside Africa. The commonalities that exist across most of the African countries with regard to the challenges of filmmaking are quite striking. Equally striking is the fact that video filmmaking, with its commercial approach, has provided solutions that have led to shared experiences. This paper seeks, from a media economics perspective, to investigate whether the features that are being condemned as militating against their prescriptions for an African cinema are not the very factors that will facilitate the realisation of such. However, it will also seek, in this process, to question the very notion of an African cinema as a reality for which to consciously strive.
Nigerian videos in the global arena: The postcolonial exotic revisited
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Nollywood: Nigerian Videofilms as a Cultural and Technological Hybridity
Nigerian videofilms reflect the economic, political, and cultural transformation in Nigeria. This article discusses Nigerian videofilms as a cultural and technological hybridity. The Nigerian movie industry, known as Nollywood, resorts to shooting movies in video form due to the high cost of celluloid. The term videofilm implies something between television and cinema. This article extends the definition. I define the term videofilm as any movie or motion picture produced mainly in the video format while adhering to particular cinematic values and conventions. Videofilm has transformed the way in which Africans tell their stories. Regarding cultural hybridity, this work evaluates Nigerian videofilms’ influence on the African diaspora and on African religion. Regarding technological hybridity, this paper investigates the videofilm revolution in Nigeria. This work employs postcolonial theory for a vivid analysis of videofilm culture. Videofilm can be used for cultural explorations and representations, or by individuals or groups who cannot afford celluloid.
Media Globalization, African Popular Culture, and History from Below: Nigerian Video Films
2012
This paper investigates how the spread of new media technology – such as digital audio and video recorders, computers, I-phones, and the Internet – has led to the proliferation of alternative social histories, by taking into consideration the particular case of the Nigerian video film industry (Nollywood). We highlight how in Nigeria and its diaspora Nollywood has become a cultural platform for constructing new narratives and identities, especially amongst marginal groups and individuals outside the spheres of state and corporate influence. Thanks to low-cost and easy-to-use digital technologies, ordinary people can now shoot their own stories, making their daily experience count for something. This seems to be particularly valuable for immigrants who can now self-document their experiences, usually denied by both the host and the home country. Although directors operating in the informal sector, outside systems of distribution that legitimize cultural trends and mediators, are unlikely to emerge as credible commentators of contemporary Nigeria, those who have recently accessed cinema theatres and film festival distribution, thanks to the enhanced quality of their work, can give full visibility and authority to the Nigerian stories told by Nollywood artists.