Stop Comparing Nollywood to Hollywood: Reorienting Western Understanding of Nigerian Cinema
Datum
2017
Autor:innen
Zeitschriftentitel
ISSN der Zeitschrift
Bandtitel
Verlag
University of Oregon
Zusammenfassung
Nigeria has the second largest film industry in the world with thousands of movies produced since the industry’s formation in the early 1990s. However, despite its massive success, Western discourses frequently use terms and allusions that reduce and frequently over-simplify the intricacies of the Nigerian film industry by comparing “Nollywood” to Hollywood. Utilizing the terms “Nollywood,” “Netflix of Africa,” and “New Nollywood” as examples of popular analogies made by scholars and journalists, I demonstrate that reorienting the focal point of industry research enriches the understanding of the Nigerian film industry in terms of Africa and Africans and away from a Western perspective. Ultimately, I argue that the Nigerian film industry should not be compared to Hollywood because they differ completely in structure, distribution strategies, and cultural understanding of what has “value.”
Beschreibung
Submitted to the Undergraduate Library Research Award scholarship competition: (2017-2018). 30 pages.