Contextual Cinemas: Screening Everydayness of Africa in Nollywood – JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN STUDIES

Author:

Innocent Ebere Uwah

Abstract:

African video-films, like performances generally capture the complexity of people’s everydayness. Apart from challenging formerly held stereotypes about the continent, they reveal the identity of Africa by underpinning key circumstantial experiences of her people. The thrust of this paper is to explain this everyday experiences in the context of a new wave of video-filmmaking culture and representations across the continent, starting with Nigeria and Ghana. By means of textual analysis as a methodological approach, it critically examines two video-films: Uziga (2008, Andy Nwakalor) from Nigeria and Enemy Within (2013, Pascal Amanfo) from Ghana to conceptualise the nature of this situation across the continent. At the end, it recommends that the present model of new cinemas across Africa be considered an alternative audio-visual prism (as against mainstream western stereotypes) for home grown truths that Africans can easily identify with.

Keywords:

Contextual Cinemas, Africa, Everydayness, Popular and Filmmaking Cultures

DOI:

10.31132/2412-5717-2019-47-2-115-126

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Filmography

1. Uziga (2008) Directed by Andy Nwakalor, Samcivic Investment Limited, Nigeria
2. Enemy within (2013) Directed by Pascal Amanfo, Venus Films Production, Ghana
3. This is Nollywood (2007) Directed by Francho Sacchi, Eureka film production and the centre for Digital Imaging Arts, Boston, USA
4. Nollywood Dreams (2008) Directed by Jacques Pauw, South African Broadcasting Corporation
5. Welcome to Nollywood (2007) Directed by Jamie Meltzer, Cinema Guild, USA.
6. Nollywood Babylon (2008) Directed by Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal, National Film Board of Canada.

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