Saturday, March 28th 2009,
2 – 6 PM at the building
e-flux video rental is please to present Storytellers: an afternoon screening of Nollywood films selected by Clara Meister, with special thanks to Uli Seifert.
the building
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 14A
Berlin 10249 DE
T: 030 28 04 79 73
The Nigerian video-film industry started with a guerrilla attitude and grew over the past 15 years to be the third largest film industry worldwide, releasing more than 30 films per week. Strongly linked to daily West African life and told from a native point of view, Nollywood reaches its audience with stories of common concern, such as love, faith and betrayal.
The introduction of affordable recording techniques promoted the rise of an industry whose medium was to become a mean of expression for future filmmakers. They distribute their movies in VHS and DVD to reach a large audience via sidewalks and local markets.
The technical advancement provides not only a voice to many filmmakers. The democratization of movie making also allows for a much shorter production time that enables them to respond faster to reality’s development. Certain political events have turned into films only two weeks after taking place, fictionalizing reality by filling the gaps of missing information with personal or collective narratives.
Apart from the appearance of some Nollywood films at international festivals, this genre remains an African phenomenon – widely accessible and influential in Africa, with its own mode of circulation and distribution, but hardly to be found at international rental stores.
PROGRAM
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm Screening
5:00 pm introduction and talk by Clara Meister and Julien Enoka
Looped program on several screens:
“What I want” (Consorts International Ltd.)
“Our days on earth” (JBM Merchandise)
“Congo Marriage” (Samlex Electronics Co. Ltd.)
“Congo Marriage 2″ (Samlex Electronics Co. Ltd.)
“Miss Nigeria” (Ossy Affason Video)
“Miss Nigeria 2″ (Ossy Affason Video)
“Wounded Land 2″ (Ayo Industries Nig. Ltd.)
“Jealous Mind” (Okayson Electronics Ltd.)
“Love, Sex & Marriage” (Ulzee Nig. Ltd.)
“Not my man” (P. Collins and Associates Ltd.)
“2 Hell with u” (Morning Star Production)
Julien Enoka-Ayemba is a filmtheorist and critic based in Berlin. He is co-founder of the anticolonial filmgroup Remember Resistance and is currently working on a publication about Nollywood.
Clara Meister is a PHD candidate at The Humbold University based in Berlin. She works and writes in the field of contemporary art. So far she collaborated on several international projects and with Institutions such as Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany. She is the co-founder of SOUNDFAIR a project collecting and exhibiting sound.
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e-flux video rental
(EVR) is an ongoing work by Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda, comprising a free video rental, a public screening room, and a film and video archive that is constantly growing. This collection of over 850 works of film and video art has been assembled in collaboration with more than 400 artists, curators and critics.
EVR is a poetic exploration of alternative processes of circulation and distribution, and it is structured to function like a typical video rental store, except that it operates for free. VHS tapes can be watched in the space, or, once a new member fills out a membership form and contract, they can be checked out and viewed at home. Originally presented at a storefront in New York, in 2004, EVR has traveled to art venues in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Seoul, Paris, Istanbul, Canary Islands, Austin, Budapest, Boston, Antwerp, Berlin, Miami, Lyon, Lisbon and Cali.
Every time EVR opens in a new city, local artists, curators and writers are invited to serve as selectors, choosing artists whose work is added to the collection. In addition, a special program of screenings of works from the EVR collection is part of the project.
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the building
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 14A
Berlin 10249 DE
T: 030 28 04 79 73
For further information please write to magdalena@e-flux.com
the building is open Thursday through Saturday, 12 – 6 pm.
come visit us!