Nollywood and the Challenge of Movie Subtitles

This monograph provides answers to many questions that bother millions of actors, actresses, producers and watchers of indigenous videos who would like to read and enjoy better on-screen subtitles in English language. It offers far-reaching solutions to this peculiar challenge in the Nigerian movie and home video industry, popularly called Nollywood - with a focus on its Yoruba genre as well as Igbo and Hausa by extension. Movie subtitle samples are brought to the fore and critically evaluated in ways that could mean increased profits for movie investors, producers and marketers, plus improved viewing pleasure of Nollywood addicts across the globe. A robust theoretical framework is applied in this study as the entire work integrates into the mass communication process. A rich history of Nollywood is presented here while specific subtitling problems are identified and discussed. Issues relating to language, linguistics, understanding, poor national imaging as well as findings from readability studies are all examined. Communication scholars applauded this effort at the September 2011 Conference of the African Council on Communication Education held in Lagos, Nigeria.