Not in the Title too is the second phase in an ongoing exploration of the Nigerian video archive at the Iwalewahaus. The project involved commissioning a Kenyan film director, Robbie Bresson to produce a trailer for a Nigerian horror film.

Working with a Kenyan cast and crew, Bresson adapted a script he had written to produce a trailer for African D'Jinn. Together with Sophia Bauer, I produced a short film which documents the process.

A group of Kenyan actors, playing Nigerian characters in an imagined Nigerian horror film creates a context in which a whole set of contemporary, social expectations can be interrogated. About pan-African identity, solidarity, prejudice and envy. About what it means to be African. About how Kenyans build their identity. About notions of ethnicity, etc etc.

Seen in the context of the Iwalewahaus, where the Nigerian video archive is housed, working with Kenyan actors to make “Nigerian” films has further, institutional consequences. The Iwalewahaus has traditionally had a West African focus but in recent years there has been a shift of interest to East African visual culture. Infiltrating the Nigerian Nollywood collection (put together by Tobias Wendl and Onoo Onokome in the 1990s) with Kenyan actors is a way of questioning the construction of a collection, or indeed a cultural canon.

Thanks to: Sophia Bauer (co-artist), Robbie Bresson (Director). Supported by: Iwawlewahausfull project