Aliya Zlotkin's presentation for Hollywood and the World - Spring 2013 - The New School

1. NOLLYWOOD
NIGERIAN CINEMA
Aliya Zlotkin

2. Nigeria, Africa
Population: 170 million
Capitol: Lagos
Languages: English,
Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba
Under British occupation
until 1960, declared
independence in 1963

3. NOLLYWOOD ORIGINS
- First Nigerian films were made by filmmakers
such as Ola Balogun and Hubert Ogunde in
the 1960‘s
- Limited by high cost of film production
- Television broadcasting in Nigeria began in
the 1960‘s, by the mid-1980‘s, every state
had its own broadcasting station
- Law limited foreign television content
- Began televising local popular theater
productions, which were then circulated as
video, informal video trade developed

4. LIVING IN BONDAGE
- First Nollywood Blockbuster, released
straight to video
- Released in 1992
- Directed by: Chris Opi Rapu
- Starring: Kanayo O. Kanayo, Francis Agu
- Igbo language
- Horror film, unhappy ending
- Started trend of supernatural horror films in
Nollywood
- Money ritual crystallized the sudden
mysterious wealth that came with the oil
boom
- Gave symbolic structure for the moral
condemnation felt by Nigerians that the elite
were up to no good

5. POPULAR NOLLYWOOD GENRES
Epic film – take place in rural African past
Horror films – ‗Living In Bondage‘
Evangelical films – ‗Hallelujah‘ films
Comedies – ‗Usuofia In London‘
―Lagos is deeply traditional, even though many
think themselves to be modern… through
Nigerian films, we see expressions of the anxiety
between the modern and the traditional - the
struggle for existence in Lagos is representative
of what happens elsewhere in Africa‖
- Odia Ofiemun

6. OSUOFIA IN LONDON
- Released in 2003
- Directed by Kingsley Ogoro
- Starring Nkem Owoh (African Movie
Academy Award winner)
- Village man travels to London to collect
his share of his dead brother‘s inheritance
- ―Exposes the folly of Nigerians expecting
whites to always assist them while at the
same time dramatizing the real ways in
which Europe and the US. serve as a
steady source of relief from the grinding
difficulties of Nigerian life‖
- CS Monitor

7. WOMAN AFFAIR
- Released in 2003
- Directed by Andy Chukwu
- Starring Genevieve Nnaji
- Listed under ‗Family‘ on IrokoTV

8. HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
- 2013
- Based on the novel by Chimamanda
Adichie
- Produced by Andrea Calderwood
(The Constant Gardener)
- Thandie Newton to play protagonist
- Controversy over not choosing
Genevieve, famous Nigerian actress

9. NOLLYWOOD TODAY
- Third largest film industry in the world (behind US and India)
- Straight-to-DVD still most common, but cinemas are growing in popularity as they become more
accessible – community cinema projects are starting up all over Nigeria
- IrokoTV – Netflix of Nigeria
- Criticized for excessive melodrama, crooked pictures, bad sound, overacting, repetitive stories,
low-brow special effects
―The excitement of seeing ourselves on the screen has drowned out the need for accuracy and
authenticity... there is a theme of pure fetish [in Nollywood‘s depiction of traditional African cultures]
that doesn‘t give you a sense of the science behind the fetish.. These films demonize, stigmatize
traitional practices. In a way, the colonial man‘s standpoint is being reflected in Nollywood… The
‗Mirror‘ of Nigeria, mirrors the good and the bad; it is a tool for self-recognition‖
―Even when you tell your own story badly, there is a comfort in being the one telling your own story.
- Odia Ofiemun

10. CLIPS
• http://irokotv.com/video/2451/agony-of-christ
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zfVPtcaKtM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lDJGHCX2wA

11. SOME QUESTIONS FOR CLASS
• Africa around the world – how much do we know about Africa and its many cultures? How
is Africa represented in the global media sphere, as opposed to the way it is represented
through Nollywood?
• Issue of ‗authenticity‘ in film – why aren‘t we—in Hollywood and elsewhere—more
concerned with authentic representation?
• Is the rejection of traditional African cultures in African films (as demonstrated by
Nollywood portrayals of tribal society) something to be concerned with?
• Do you think that this push towards ‗Western modernization‘ (particularly religious
and capitalist influence) is an inevitable transformation that will happen everywhere,
or can it be diverted/stopped?
• How can we encourage foreign film industries to move away from the Hollywood model?
Can/should we?