VIDEOS IN MOTION - fasopo

“Nollywood” is refused when it is a synonym of cheap contents and poor production values. In thiscase, the prevailing attitude is one of differentiation and singularization.Other directors positioned themselves along Tunde Kelani’s line. For instance, Kunle Afolayan,one of the most successful Nigerian directors in recent times, explicitly expresses the ambiguities hesees in the use of the term Nollywood :all the people that are doing something different will tell you that they are notNollywood... so, then, what is Nollywood? I don’t know myself! The entire Nigerianindustry has been called Nollywood, but if Nollywood comes to mean somethinginferior, if Nollywood is only three lights and a cheap video camera, then I'm notNollywood, because I don't do that. If the definition of Nollywood has to do with thecontents I'm not within it, I'm just a Nigerian filmmaker who is doing his own work. Butif Nollywood is just a name, that has nothing to do with the content, I'm fine with it(2010).As Afolayan’s words evidence, the definition of what the Nigerian video industry is and of what theterm “Nollywood” means are enveloped in a general atmosphere of indeterminacy. Within thiscontext individual strategies of self-positioning have acquired a particular importance. Theconflicting discourses on the Nigerian video phenomenon that I highlighted in this chapter haveimportantly influenced the work of numerous Nigerian video entrepreneurs, pushing them towardmore conscious and explicit choices.The hiatus existing between what I labeled throughout this chapter as the “reality” of theNigerian video industry and the ideal represented by the term “Nollywood”, is the space withinwhich the Nigerian filmmakers operate. These two diverging metacultures, the one of “Nollywood”as the second largest film industry in the world, and that of the Nigerian video industry as a cheapand disorganized business, have both interacted with the way the industry has transformed over thepast few years. Many directors in fact consciously aspire toward making the “reality” and the idealfit together. On one side, they are constantly challenged by the kind of criticism I discussed in theprevious sections, and on the other they are inspired by the ideal they see in the international andlocal acceptance of “Nollywood” as a symbol of success. The metaculture of “Nollywood” as asuccessful brand and that of Nigeria as the second largest film-producing-nation in the worldestablished themselves internationally more rapidly than the video industry itself. The “reality” ofthe industry seems in fact to be few steps behind what the label “Nollywood” make people imagine112