The Executive Council of the Ghana Film Producers Association called on the Information Minister at his office last week.
Not very surprisingly, the age-old vexed issue of financial assistance to film makers came up.
After the lull that lasted over a decade, the Ghanaian film industry is bouncing back.
From a look at the key players whose names are currently making the headlines, one could safely conclude that this time, the industry is staking a claim for long term sustainability.
The quality of personnel on the horizon today is a far cry from the crop of film makers who took over the industry soon after the take-off of the video scene around 1987/88.
There is empirical evidence that between 1990 and 1997, auto mechanics were parading as film directors! Typical of Ghanaians, everybody became an expert: people with absolutely no clue of the ABC of film making were strutting around, claming to know how to call shots.
Unable to tolerate the situation, trained film makers who could not understand why with all their training and skills, totally non-literate mechanics and Abossey Okai vehicle part dealers should be directing productions, packed out.
Alone, these non-literate film makers inflicted their ignorance on the industry, churning out films that churned the stomach.
Their speciality was in tomfoolery, superstition and scenes of women in heart-wrenching wails. That is what sold, and as long these films sold, Ghana was thought to have a film industry.
That was the era when entire movies were shot in 24 hours! The film itself did not have a script, and the story line, as narrated to the actors/actresses, had a very watery plot.
No wonder when Nigerian films, produced by technically competent directors, at the head of a crew who not only had sat in film schools but had had hands-on experience as well, poured onto the Ghanaian market, many a worried and concerned industry watcher heard the tolling of the death knell.
The National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) has turned out so many creative film makers, whose only claim to greatness is what they have in their heads, recognized only by a few course mates.
No wonder, a time came, in the late 1990s, when Ghana, which had had the proud record of having trained film makers from African countries, including Nigeria, and which, once upon a time, had the most modern and the biggest sound stage in sub-Sahara Africa, was at the bottom rungs with little or nothing to show.
Mercifully, Ghana has, since last year, began to witness a revival of the industry with well trained directors, crew and actors/actresses. The sad tale to tell is that these are very few; so few that like fingers, they could be counted on one hand.
It is principally for what the Times sees as signs of a revival of the industry that we think the request by the spokesperson for the Film Producers Association takes on great significance.
If the Minister has any plans for the industry, we are pleased to inform him that the most important task ahead is FILM FINANCING.
For as long as there is no revolving fund from which NAFTI trained film makers can access funds to make films, for that long will the revival of the film industry in Ghana remain a mirage.
Not very surprisingly, the age-old vexed issue of financial assistance to film makers came up.
After the lull that lasted over a decade, the Ghanaian film industry is bouncing back.
From a look at the key players whose names are currently making the headlines, one could safely conclude that this time, the industry is staking a claim for long term sustainability.
The quality of personnel on the horizon today is a far cry from the crop of film makers who took over the industry soon after the take-off of the video scene around 1987/88.
There is empirical evidence that between 1990 and 1997, auto mechanics were parading as film directors! Typical of Ghanaians, everybody became an expert: people with absolutely no clue of the ABC of film making were strutting around, claming to know how to call shots.
Unable to tolerate the situation, trained film makers who could not understand why with all their training and skills, totally non-literate mechanics and Abossey Okai vehicle part dealers should be directing productions, packed out.
Alone, these non-literate film makers inflicted their ignorance on the industry, churning out films that churned the stomach.
Their speciality was in tomfoolery, superstition and scenes of women in heart-wrenching wails. That is what sold, and as long these films sold, Ghana was thought to have a film industry.
That was the era when entire movies were shot in 24 hours! The film itself did not have a script, and the story line, as narrated to the actors/actresses, had a very watery plot.
No wonder when Nigerian films, produced by technically competent directors, at the head of a crew who not only had sat in film schools but had had hands-on experience as well, poured onto the Ghanaian market, many a worried and concerned industry watcher heard the tolling of the death knell.
The National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) has turned out so many creative film makers, whose only claim to greatness is what they have in their heads, recognized only by a few course mates.
No wonder, a time came, in the late 1990s, when Ghana, which had had the proud record of having trained film makers from African countries, including Nigeria, and which, once upon a time, had the most modern and the biggest sound stage in sub-Sahara Africa, was at the bottom rungs with little or nothing to show.
Mercifully, Ghana has, since last year, began to witness a revival of the industry with well trained directors, crew and actors/actresses. The sad tale to tell is that these are very few; so few that like fingers, they could be counted on one hand.
It is principally for what the Times sees as signs of a revival of the industry that we think the request by the spokesperson for the Film Producers Association takes on great significance.
If the Minister has any plans for the industry, we are pleased to inform him that the most important task ahead is FILM FINANCING.
For as long as there is no revolving fund from which NAFTI trained film makers can access funds to make films, for that long will the revival of the film industry in Ghana remain a mirage.
