The Problematic Mise en Scène of Neo-Nollywood.

Abstract

This paper deconstructs the typical mise en scène of neo-Nollywood films. Herein, “neo-Nollywood” as coined by Nigerian filmmaker, Charles Novia (2012: 124), will be the descriptor for the cinema sphere of the mainstream Nigerian film industry, Nollywood. It will argue that there is a considerable level of illiteracy about cinematic language in neo-Nollywood productions, and that this troubles its capacity to articulately “tell its stories” to the world. It will also present that this results from the predisposition to tell a story – the overreliance on dialogue - rather than to show it in a mise en scène of visual metaphors, which is the definition of cinema. The conversation will be with core attention to three films: 30 Days in Atlanta (2014), Chief Daddy (2018) and my most recent screenplay, Mugabe (forthcoming), directed by Robert Peters. Each film will be analysed via textual analysis with reference to the theories of dramaturgy and mise en scène. Reflections on my practice as a screenwriter and director will also be invited to the conversation. This paper draws on findings of my doctoral research, which bridge the gap between the scholarship of neo-Nollywood film studies and that of its practice, with core attention to cinematic techniques. Until this research, this gap in Nollywood studies remained unaddressed.