VIDEOS IN MOTION - fasopo

systems of rules that regulate the interactions between these agents enter a period of transformation,violent conflicts can erupt, as shown by several episodes in the recent past. 50As Roitman suggests, when we talk about “informal” we mainly refer to “unregulated” or“unofficial” economic activities (2005: 19-20) that is, activities that are not monitored and that donot fall into the fiscal framework of the nation-state. However, this does not exhaust the meaning ofinformality in the present context. When I refer to informal modes of production and distribution, Ido not mean only that these modes of production and distribution are unregulated. This would be anegative definition, whereas it might be more useful for this discussion to suggest a definition thatpositively identifies the specific aspects of informality within the video economy.Hamid Naficy’s description of exilic modes of film production within the Iranian diaspora maybe relevant for an analysis of the Nigerian video industry. These modes of production, which hedefines as “interstitial” or “artisanal”, “operate both within and astride the cracks and fissures of thesystem, benefiting from its contradictions, anomalies and heterogeneity” (1999: 134). Thisdefinition is useful to understand how the Nigerian video entrepreneurs act within an economicsystem that does not foresee their existence. They are obliged to adapt and creatively react to acontext in which their activity is systematically undermined by the authorities. Nollywood has infact developed without any governmental support, in a context that has often considered theindustry a problem rather than a resource for the development of Nigerian economy and society. 51The interstitiality of Nigerian video entrepreneurs’ modes of operation is, thus, a constitutiveelement of the informality that defines the economy of the industry.Another central feature to be considered is the rhizomatic organization of the industry’seconomy, and of informal transactions in general. While formal economies tend to have cephalicstructures, in which it is possible to identify an organizational centre, informal economic systemstend to work according to a segmented structure, in which networks of reciprocal connectionsinteract with each other through a myriad of nodal points and transform themselves constantly, inunmonitored but meaningful ways. This aspect implicitly foregrounds another defining attribute ofNollywood’s informality: fluidity. The economy and the structure of the video industry transform50 For instance, in 2004 the Film and Video Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria banned some of the mostfamous Nollywood stars (included Ramsey Nouah and Genevieve Nnaji) for one year for alleged indiscipline. Theywere accused of demanding excessive salaries and thus influencing the development of the ongoing crisis of production.51 In recent times the Nigerian government has modified its position, instituting in 2010 a USD 200 million fund forloans to Nigerian entertainment entrepreneurs. The fund, partly the effect of an IMF loan, is administered by a statebody, the Bank of Industries, which started assigning loans at the beginning of 2011 (Osae-Brown 2011).55