The transition from literature to visual form of films and now video films is a path rarely trodden in the Nigerian literary societies. This comes about due to the strict division between literary pursuits and film. Literature is most often considered as a more serious domain of popular culture, reflecting as it does a poetic interpretation of life. Film on the other hand is often considered as a pure entertainment medium. However, filmmaking also constitutes a form of discourse and practice that is not just artistic and cultural, but also intellectual and political. The video medium provides a very special opportunity for studying the transition of the same spectrum of creative arts. This paper examines the relationship between film and literature, and also argues that both film and literature constitute an aesthetic, cultural and (in the case of film) popular cultural discourse. It also seeks to investigate why some Nigerian literatures have not yielded themselves for adaptation, and why people prefer the film medium to that of literature.
