Women filmmakers and the remaking of New Nollywood : gender, politics and governance

Akam, Kingsley and Munby, Dr Jonathan and Ghorbankarimi, Dr Maryam (2025) Women filmmakers and the remaking of New Nollywood : gender, politics and governance. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This study focuses on the influence of women in New Nollywood cinema and their contributions to reshape cinematic representations of governance in Nigeria. The analysis of key texts underscores the significant impact of women in steering cinematic conversations towards a progressive governance; challenging traditional narratives and reflecting contemporary socio-political realities in Nigeria. Through these films, women are not only crafting new storytelling paradigms but also advocating systemic change and the promotion of good governance principles. The thesis argues that the period of New Nollywood start with the massive arrival of women filmmakers in 2006. As such, this study reviews existing research and conclusions about the aesthetic and political value of New Nollywood cinema through concentration on the works of women filmmakers. Focusing on the overlooked work of women filmmakers, leads to the questioning of existing historiographies and paradigms that frame our understanding of Nigerian cinema and examines how the work of women filmmakers dramatises the complex relationship between patriarchy and ethnicity as well as religious and national identities, in the postcolonial Nigerian context. The methodology employed involves comprehensive textual analysis, utilising close reading techniques to examine the films both as standalone texts and within their broader social, historical, and political contexts. The key works central to this study include: Mildred Okwo’s The Meeting (2012), Emem Isong’s Code of Silence (2015), Ema Edosio’s The Governor the thirteen-episode TV series (2016), Kemi Adetiba’s Wedding party part one (2016) and King of Boys (2018), Tope Oshin Ogun’s Up North (2018), Omoni Oboli’s Wives on Strike part one (2016 ) and Wives on Strike part two (2017), and Love is War (2019). The study proposes that 21st century Nollywood women filmmakers are in a unique position to make film a vital vehicle for the interrogating good governance in the Nigerian context through their ability to dramatise the damage of patriarchy, and Afrocentric colonialism in the name of an alternative value system and its more inclusive ideas of citizenship and national belonging.