Nollywood: Africa's Popular Film Industry

Catalog description

How has Nollywood, Africa's popular film industry, grown into a global cinema while preserving its local cultural distinctiveness? What can it teach us about the relationship between cinema, culture, and the peripheral media of the postcolonial world? Born in the boisterous city of Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital and the quintessential postcolonial African metropolis, Nollywood is now recognized as the world’s third largest film industry, after Hollywood and Bollywood. Yet, even as it reaches global audiences through platforms like Netflix, Nollywood retains its distinctly local flavor. This course explores Nollywood’s journey from grassroots "video cinema" to its current global cinema status. So, what makes Nollywood a compelling form of "third cinema?" How does its practices both challenge and adapt to global media norms? Home to a vibrant Nollywood fanbase, London allows students to learn about and watch a range of Nollywood films, and engage directly with prominent UK-based Nollywood filmmakers. Formal paper presentations, lectures and reflections will guide students to a nuanced understanding of Nollywood’s evolving global role and its continued resonance in African diasporic communities. This course will be offered in June-Term 2026. This course will be taught at NYU London and will count as an Away J-Term course.