CONCEPTUALIZING DIFFERENT AUTEURSHIP PRACTICES IN NOLLYWOOD: TUNDE KELENI’S IDEOLOGICAL AUTHORSHIP IN FOCUS.

Auteurial discourse has been unswerving in film studies all over the world. Attempts towards its contextualization in Nollywood have been made by scholars such as Chisimdi Ihentuge, Ovunda Ihuwo and Silvia Okwosa. The need to deepen research on this subject which arguably determines the heartbeat of every filmic culture propelled this research. This study critically examines three categories of auteurship such as dramatic, technical and ideological practices. It is observed that different auteurs have different levels of auteurial control in specific components of filmic mise-en-scene. Directors such as Teco Benson apply a verisimilitude technique to narrative and as such may be categorized as a dramatic auteur practitioner. Izu Ojukwu on the other hand defined by his auteurial control in visual language is categorized as technical auteur practitioner whereas Tunde Kelani whom this paper interrogates is driven by ideological motifs. This ranks him as ideological auteur practitioner. In conceptualizing these different categories of auteur practices, the paper foregrounds Kelani’s ideological authorship as a paradigm for ideological auteur practitioners. These classifications are expected to chart a new course for auteur practice in film studies in the world and in Nollywood in particular