Social Construct of Nollywood Films and Ethnocentrism in Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Nollywood, Nigeria's signature video-film culture, has had its fortunes significantly impacted or improved since the early 1990s, when it emerged as a powerful cultural production site in the national imagination. Nollywood has since travelled from its aboriginal Nigerian homeland and transgressed national boundaries to become a truly global film phenomenon with post-national aspirations and global ambitions. The global enactment of energies by this film tradition has occasioned a transition from “old” Nollywood to what is now called “neo” or “new” Nollywood. “New” Nollywood, therefore, represents a trajectory that has inaugurated a new dispensation of big budget films and excellence in sophisticated storytelling with an experimental and improvisational character. It has also introduced complicated and unpredictable plot structures, improved characterization, and improved picture quality. There is also greater directorial competence and rounded scripts with greater technical depth and cultural verisimilitude. There also exists higher professional acumen and integrity, and more robust attention to the minutiae of post-production details. In addition, there has been increased collaboration between Nollywood and other film cultures in the areas of joint starring in films, international settings, and circulation reach. This “new” ideal radically contrasts with “old” Nollywood. This study engages the post-nationality of Nollywood, which manifests in its traveling patterns and the transgression of cartographic boundaries to engage diasporic communities around the world. Of particular interest in this study is how Nollywood has emerged as the third biggest film industry in the world, after Hollywood and Bollywood, from its humble Nigerian beginnings and how this post-national character has been acquired and sustained.