No. 115/2023

DO FILMS CREATE OPPORTUNITIES, MS EZEPUE? Photo: Humboldt Foundation/ Jann Höfer Up to now, most of the films made on the continent of Africa have been low-budget filmed entertainment. But now, investors and streaming services are opening up the market in African films to an international audience. The Nigerian film scholar Ezinne Ezepue sees this as a great opportunity. Through her research, she wants to help develop high-quality African stories and more differentiated images of Africa. “Whether in films, books, in national or international media – so far, Africa has usually been presented as exotic, poor and sick,” says Ezepue. “Presentations like this prevent Africans from dreaming, curb their ambitions.” The researcher is convinced that more ambitious films could help to fight clichés and paint a more differentiated picture of Africa. At the ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln, Ezepue is therefore currently working on ways in which African myths, stories and folktales could enhance contemporary African films. In her quest to achieve her goal, the researcher is evaluating, amongst others, films, literary texts and interviews with historians. She wants to present the results to students of film in Nigeria. Her research aims to generate ideas for telling more ambitious African stories that are able to captivate an international audience. “What I want to do is change the image of Africa whilst contributing to economic growth in the region.” Text NORA LESSING Since August 2022, DR EZINNE EZEPUE has been a Georg Forster Research Fellow, conducting research on African storytelling at the ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln. 11 HUMBOLDT KOSMOS 115/2023