Annotated Bibliographies (Week Four)

This was written for the University subject, BCM111.

Rajadhyaksha, A 2003, ‘The “Bollywoodization” of the Indian cinema: cultural nationalism in a global arena’, Inter-Asia cultural studies, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 25-39

This article mainly describes the ‘Bollywood’ phenomena, the invention of the term, how the term ‘Bollywood’ isn’t restricted to the Indian film industry and the challenges facing the industry’s continued success. The article relates to the subject topic as it’s a key, central reading in the ‘Global Film Industries’ topic and it delineates how Bollywood is becoming a powerful international and commercial force. In regards to usefulness, the article provides keen insight into various aspects of the ‘Bollywood culture industry’ as well as why the Bollywood film industry “…continues to suffer from its old difficulties of defining a generic production line and thus of defining a stable channel of capital inflow” and why such difficulties are hindering Bollywood’s progress. The article may be used to provide a theoretical basis to understanding and discussing Bollywood as a whole. However, its shortcomings or limitations come mainly from its somewhat limited statistics or ‘evidence’, as it relies largely on theory and discussion, as strong as they may be.

Endong, CPF 2017, ‘Nollywood in Cameroon: Transnationalisation and Reception of a Dynamic Cinematic Culture’, CINEJ Cinema Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 129-143

The article in question particularly focuses on Nollywood, as the title suggests, transnationally and how it affects other African communities outside of Nigeria and also gives a brief overview of the growth of Nollywood and its impact on Cameroonian cinema or ‘Collywood’. The articles relates to both the ‘Global Film Industries’ topic and Global Media Studies as a whole as it analyses how Nollywood as grown as an industry as well as its impact across Africa and even the world. In terms of usefulness, the article provides an interesting perspective in tracing back Nollywood to the 1960s and the ‘Fathers’ of Nigerian cinema, particularly Hubert Ogunde who “…as far back as 1945, he established the very first professional theatrical company named “Ogunde Theatre”…” as well as how “…positively received [Nollywood is] in Cameroon, though remarkable bastions of anti-Nigerian sentiments persist…” For future assessments, the article may be used to provide clear insight into not only a basic overview of Nollywood’s history, but also what other African nations think about Nollywood as a rapidly developing industry. However, the article is flawed due to the “…non-availability of statistics and official institutions [in Nigeria and Cameroon] devoted specifically to media programming…”, thus making it difficult to fully quantify Nollywood’s impact transnationally.