VIDEOS IN MOTION - fasopo

2010), the premieres became a more sophisticated ritual, centered on the star system. 72 Thepremieres are designed as social events: journalists and media partners gather around a red carpetarea two hours before the beginning of the screening, and fans queue near the cinema entrance inanticipation of the stars’ arrival. When the director and the actors arrive, the tension rises, theatmosphere becomes glamorous, and people move in for a closer look. The aim is to createsomething that the audience can perceive as unique. As the experience of attending the premiere ofEmem Isong's Bursting Out in October 2010 made me realize, it is a successful formula. Thatevening, the Odeon Greenwich was overcrowded – probably also because of the presence ofsuperstar Genevieve Nnaji, who rarely attends public events even in Nigeria. Two additionalscreening rooms had to be provided at the last minute to accommodate all the Nollywoodenthusiasts, and celebrations went on until late at night.The progressive formalization of Nigerian videos’ diasporic circulation evidenced by theseexamples, made diasporic markets particularly attractive for Nigerian producers. As a consequence,the aesthetics and narratives of the films produced transformed in order to meet the demand of thissection of the market. An analysis of the defining features of the high budget Nigeria filmsproduced over the past few years will help in understanding these transformations.A new wave in Nigerian cinemaAccording to some commentators, the higher budget productions that I have mentioned severaltimes throughout this chapter represent a new Nigerian cinema, or a “new Nollywood” (Ebere 2011;Ekunno 2011). 73 However, the debate around the definition of this new trend is still open. On theone hand, those who propose the term “new Nollywood” tend to emphasize a relation of continuity72 The Afro-Hollywood awards, organized by a group of Nigerians in London since 1996, can be seen as the forerunnerof star-centered type of events for the Nigerian diaspora in the UK. Since the first edition, in fact, the organizers broughtto London numerous Nigerian stars and participated in consolidating the ties between diasporic audiences and theNigerian video industry.73In October 2010 the Virgo Foundation, a foundation created by Wale Ojo, a Nigerian actor based in London, andaimed at the promotion of Nigerian contemporary arts in Nigeria, organized the “New Nigeria Cinema” event at theBritish Film Institute in London. During this event some of the new releases discussed in this section have beenscreened, and the emergence of a new wave in Nigerian cinema has been discussed, promoted and explicitly sanctioned.Interestingly enough all the filmmakers present at the event were Nigerian diaporic filmmakers. The act of sanctioningthe existence of this new wave, thus, assumed a transnational dimension that emphasized the role of the diaspora inshaping the video industry’s new developments.80