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On the Periphery of Nollywood

Nigerian Video Filmmaking in Italy and the Emergence of an Intercultural Aesthetics

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Postcolonial Italy

Part of the book series: Italian and Italian American Studies ((IIAS))

Abstract

The Nigerian video industry, internationally known as Nollywood,1 has rapidly developed in the past few years becoming, according to the survey published by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics in April 2009, the second largest film industry in the world in terms of the sheer number of films produced.2 As Jonathan Haynes has underscored (“The Nollywood Diaspora”), after the broad popular success achieved by video films such as Osuofia in London (2003) and Dangerous Twins (2004), videos shot in a foreign context (and therefore able to appeal to a particular kind of exoticism) and dealing with the experience of migration (an experience lived or dreamed about by many Nigerians), started to become very popular in Nigeria. As a consequence of this popularity, while many Nollywood production companies based in Nigeria began to finance film projects set in the diaspora, Nigerian expatriates began to see the economic potential of investing in filmmaking and started to set up their own production companies abroad. Among these ventures, two video production companies, directly connected to the Nigerian system of production and distribution, emerged in northern Italy: IGB Film and Music Industry based in Brescia and GVK (Giving Vividly with Kindness) based in Turin.

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Authors
  1. Alessandro Jedlowski
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Editor information

Cristina Lombardi-Diop Caterina Romeo

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© 2012 Cristina Lombardi-Diop and Caterina Romeo

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Jedlowski, A. (2012). On the Periphery of Nollywood. In: Lombardi-Diop, C., Romeo, C. (eds) Postcolonial Italy. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281463_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281463_16

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-44817-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-28146-3

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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