Zina Saro-Wiwa

Zina Saro-Wiwa
Born1976 (age 47–48)
NationalityNigerian
CitizenshipNigerian, British
Alma materUniversity of Bristol
Occupations
Years active2008 - present
Relatives

Zina Saro-Wiwa (born 1976, Port Harcourt, Nigeria) is a Brooklyn-based video artist and filmmaker. She makes video installations, documentaries, music videos and experimental films.

Saro-Wiwa is the founding filmmaker of the alt-Nollywood movement. A movement that uses the narrative, stylistic and visual conventions of the Nollywood film industry but for subversive, politically challenging ends.

Formerly a BBC journalist, her artistic practice emerged from her interest in changing the way the world sees Africa using film, art, and food. Her practice includes New West African Kitchen, a project where Saro-Wiwa re-imagines West African cuisine. Each feast also features African video art presentations and a mini lecture.

On 22 March 2011, Saro-Wiwa was named as one of the top 25 leaders of the African Renaissance in The Times newspaper.[1]

In 2017, an article published on Norient highlighted that Saro-Wiwa's use of dubbing alt-Nollywood movies "subverts narrative, stylistic and visual conventions of the Nigerian cinema".[2]

  1. ^ "Biography of Zina Saro-Wiwa". www.biographies.net. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  2. ^ Dabiri, Emma. "Re-Imagining Gender in Nigeria". Norient.com. Norient. Retrieved 6 July 2023.