The cultural penetration of Nigerian films in France Part 4

Nollywood France

Another approach is to watch free Nigerian films on the Internet dubbed in French language and others subtitled in English. On a local poll I conducted among people around me, and they were asked why they watch Nigerian films. One of them Leoplold from Cameroun says that “In Nollywood, I see family problems, the relationship between husband and wife, witchcraft that we used to hear about when I was in Africa, and sometimes with Nollywood you come in contact with African towns which I have not seen for a long time. In fact some parts of Lagos are not different from some parts of Yaoundé in Cameroun”. This is one way of looking at how viewers in France watch Nollywood films on YouTube dubbed with African voices and accents on the Internet. But the data gathered from Semrush.com, specialized for website audit, estimated the number of viewers per day at 6 million which shows that Nollywood TV remains the first choice of French consumers.

Although Nollywood films seem to be gathering momentum in France, in June 2013, the Nollywood Week Paris festival picked up to add to the list of initiatives in this big market. The festival was created with a shoestring budget and in the words of the founder, Serger Noukoue, “We just wanted Nollywood to be seen and to be understood and to be visible in Paris, France, because Paris is one of the most important cities when it comes to cinema in the world. It makes no sense that there is no access to Nollywood in the city”.

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