Cinema in the Church: The Evangelical Film Worldview in Nigeria
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Published:April 2025
Creating an alternative in the face of insufficiency typifies the entire film industry in Nigeria. The video film industry itself started as an alternative to celluloid film technology. The idea of serving as an alternative has always been in the mind of evangelical filmmakers in Nigeria. The evangelical film worldview, grounded in Nigeria but with a global dimension, creates a specific tradition of filmmaking and film exhibition where church screenings have become an exciting development in the cycle of film exhibition in Nigeria. The chapter argues that these new cinema spaces and the networks they convene have influenced the mode of distribution and consumption of the Nigerian media screen at home and abroad, and can become a model for other African screen worlds. The emergence and then proliferation of church screenings offer a vivid case study of the wide possibilities and ever-evolving nature of African screen worlds.