Nigerian cinema: structural adjustments

Abstract

Nigerian cinema presents an interesting, even striking contrast to the situation of cinema in other West African countries. To be sure, there are broad, structural similarities: Nigerian feature film production began in 1970, just a few years after the beginning of cinema in the francophone countries; the distribution system continues to be largely closed to indigenous filmmakers, supplying instead a diet of American, Indian, and Chinese films; local production is therefore starved for money and equipment, so that one cannot really talk of a film industry-production is artisanal, informal, and sporadic. The rate of production in Nigeria is at best about four 16 mm feature films in a year-that is, films shot on negative film stock. More work is being made using cheaper technologies, such as reversal film stock (from which no prints can be made), or video, which is then blown up to 16 mm. Including such films, something more than one hundred features have been produced in Nigeria (Ekwuazi 16-18; Adesanya, Nigerian Film/TVIndex 116-18). The material infrastructure for making films is about the same as in francophone West Africa, though the financial infrastructure is probably even less developed. The disastrous decline of the Nigerian Naira has made importation of materials and equipment, and foreign processing, astronomically expensive. in 35 mm has ceased almost entirely since the seventies, and is unlikely to resume on any scale until the economic situation improves.' But 16 mm equipment (not always in the best repair) and experienced professionals to run it are available locally, and there is easy access to equipment from abroad. It is now possible to produce a 16 mm film of good technical quality entirely in Nigeria, importing only the film stock, and to do most of the post-production work there as well (Adesanya Production Infrastructure). Facilities for processing black and white film have been in place for a long time; a new color processing facility (with a sound dubbing studio) belonging to the Nigerian Film Corporation has recently (May 1992) been opened in Jos. As long as the Jos facility remains fully functional (there is some skepticism about its commercial viability), it will be possible to make a film in Nigeria from start to finish. The video resources in Lagos are considerable, with about twenty video production houses, and since a feature can be produced on video (for