Neoliberal Rationalities in Old and New Nollywood

Abstract

This article focuses on shifts, or "new waves," within contemporary African film as sites of struggle and moments of exposure of the divergent forces at work in the struggle. From this perspective, attempts at initiating a new style in commercially oriented storytelling do not so much culminate in a break with previous styles of storytelling as they create a new space for tension over ideological claims and narrative coherence. As illustration, the article considers the competing logics at work in the strategies or rationalities associated with the branch of Nigerian filmmaking described as New Nollywood.Résumé: Cet article se concentre sur des changements, ou de "nouvelles vagues," dans le cinéma africain contemporain perçu comme sites de lutte et moments de révélation des forces divergentes à l'oeuvre dans la lutte. Dans cette perspective, les tentatives de lancement d'un nouveau style dans la narration à vocation commerciale, représente moins une cassure avec les styles narratifs précédents, qu'il ne crée un nouvel espace pour une tension entre revendications idéologiques et cohérence narrative. A titre d'illustration, l'article examine les logiques concurrentes à l'oeuvre dans les stratégies ou rationalités associées avec la branche de cinéma nigérian décrit sous le nom de Nouveau Nollywood.

The New Nollywood: Professionalization or Gentrification of Cultural Industry

“…Thus, Afolayan (2014) defines the new Nollywood as "a move away from the cinematic ebullience and mushrooming tendency of Nollywood towards a qualitative and aesthetic transformation of the industry" (p. 26). Afolayan (2014), Jedlowski (2013, Okome (2014), Adejunmobi (2015), and Haynes (2014) among other authors, while underscoring the differences between an existent Nollywood film practice and innovations being introduced, separate rather than blend these innovations into the old practice. Hence, rather than conceived as an evolutionary trend, the old and new Nollywood are perceived as separate or distinct creative practices-a distinction that promotes sectoring within the industry.…”

“…The return of professionalism to the industry has warranted a segmentation that is akin to class separation in a gentrified economy. Segmentation in the wider Nigerian film industry has extended to Nollywood and in recent times, scholars like Jedlowski (2013), Okome (2014), Adejunmobi (2015), among others, have engaged in the discourse of an emerging Nollywood which they have identified in different terms like the New Nigerian cinema, new wave, emerging Nollywood, and Neo-Nollywood.…”

From Living in Bondage to Queen Amina: An Aesthetic Evaluation of Contemporary Nollywood

“…In this study, I use two Nollywood films to interrogate the industry’s formalization, aesthetic regeneration, and overall transformation. The study examines issues of class, quality, and standards associated with the old and new Nollywood labels (Adejunmobi, 2015; Ezepue, 2020; Haynes, 2014; Jedlowski, 2013) in the production and distribution of Living in Bondage (1992) and Queen Amina (2017), both produced by Okechukwu Ogunjiofor. The aim of this study is not to favor either the new or old Nollywood, but to present them as filmmaking strategies that have impacted on the business of filmmaking in the history of the industry.…”

“…Such periodic evaluation of Nollywood is infrequent in Nollywood studies. Traced from 2009, the marked increase in large budget, improved quality, and large screen pictures which characterize new Nollywood films have become the focus of recent publications (Adejunmobi, 2015; A. Afolayan, 2014; Connor, 2015; Denton, 2014; Haynes, 2014; Jedlowski, 2013; Okome, 2014).…”