Nollywood: the video phenomenon in Nigeria

Abstract

Nollywood: The Video Phenomenon in Nigeria, edited by Pierre Barrot. Revised English edition; translations by Lynn Taylor. Oxford: James Currey; Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press; Ibadan: HEBN Publishers, 2008. xii + 147 pp. ISBN 978-1-84701-504-4 (James Currey); 978-0253-22117-9 (Indiana U.P.); 978-978-081-209-6 (HEBN). £45 (hbk), £14.95 (pbk) Three years after it debuted in French as Nollywood: le phenomene video au Nigeria, this introductory volume on the Nigerian video film industry finds a new, wider authence in the anglophone world, including much of Nigeria. The English edition offers an updated version of essays by a diverse assemblage of knowledgeable contributors, each with relevant experience in aspects of media production. The book outlines the unlikely exponential development of the video film industry in Nigeria and the expansion of its sphere of influence beyond Nigeria's borders across Africa and its contemporary diaspora. It explores the dire political and economic circumstances behind the Nigerians' spontaneous break from celluloid film production in favor of video, their subsequent development of a robust, independent, home-grown video film industry, and the proliferation of their products within Nigeria and in diverse external media markets. The term which may have been coined by New York Times writer Norimitsu Onishi in 20021, though originally resisted by some as unauthentic2, is now widely used by industry practitioners, journalists, scholars and the public. In 2005 a landmark international conference in Los Angeles titled Rising: Global Perspectives on the Nigerian Film Industry brought together some key players from Nigeria with their Hollywood counterparts and scholars from both sides. Remarkably, the original French edition of the Pierre Barrot volume here under review was published that same year, lending further legitimacy to the term. Nollywood sets out to examine the development and impact of the Nigerian video film industry from 1992 - widely accepted as its inception - through 2007. Editor Pierre Barrot contributes a significant portion of the content, authoring six of the fourteen thematic chapters and all of the fourteen video film profiles, as well as the preface and epilogue. His and other contributions address the challenge of obtaining reliable statistics and financial data in an industry that is largely informal and unregulated. …