By 2010, the Nigerian film industry, informally called “Nollywood,” had become the second-largest film industry in the world. Today, the accessibility of digital video technology continues to enable prolific amateur filmmakers to produce wildly popular low-budget and direct-to-DVD films, which deal with timely issues of religion, poverty, and corruption.
In January of 2010, Creative Time commissioned Danish-Icelandic artist and filmmaker Jakob Boeskob to travel to Lagos, Nigeria. In collaboration with Nollywood film director Teco Benson, Boeskob created the short art–action video, Dr. Cruel and the Afro-Icelandic Liberation Front. A multinational satire, Dr. Cruel tells the story of a “Scandinavian hero” who employs terrorist tactics in an attempt to regain foreign oil money for the Nigerian people. Inspired by the local industry’s democratized, DIY approach to cinema, Boeskob’s video is a hybridization of cultures, video clips, filmic cliches, and political agendas.
Jakob Boeskov
Dr. Cruel and the Afro-Icelandic Liberation Front
Lagos, Nigeria
2010
