Ghanaian renowned movie producer, Peter Sedufia has intimated that movie producers in Ghana don’t make a conscious effort to market Ghanaian culture and tradition in their movies.
The ‘Keteke’ movie producer made this revelation in an interview where he explained that the stringent measures put in place by the government have made it difficult for movie producers to make an effort to showcase Ghanaian culture particularly in tourist sites.
He further explained that since they self-finance the movie they produce, it becomes difficult for them to consider culture so much, especially when the audience don’t have an interest in the films.
“You watch a lot of our films and you hardly see filmmakers deliberately trying to sell the country’s culture. There is no conscious effort made to market our culture through our movies. That is where we have failed.
“This happens because of the premium that the managers of such cultural forums place …for instance, if you want to use a very cultural space in Ghana in your film, the bureaucracy that you have to go through, and the amount of money that you will be charged for wanting to use those spaces is so much. As a self-financed producer, you wouldn’t want to invest that kind of money just to showcase that place in your film. You would rather want to go to a free place. The system has made it difficult for us to have the interest to display our culture as they want”.
Peter Sedufia
When asked if there can be a national agenda by the government, to promote the Ghanaian culture through movies and music that will also come with financial support, he noted that this has been an issue he has been advocating for a long time. However, according to him they only see the need during elections.
“I have spoken to several people in America and they do this national agenda without putting it in your face. They won’t even communicate it for you to know that it is the government that is funding a movie to promote America in a positive light. They make it look organic like Hollywood is the one coming up with that agenda but that is not the case”.
Peter Sedufia
OKYEAME KWAME SIDES WITH PETER
That notwithstanding, Ghanaian music icon Okyeame Kwame who also joined in the conversation noted that some individual musical artists in Ghana are doing well by incorporating the Ghanaian culture in their music and music videos. But as to whether it was a governmental direction, he “doesn’t know”.
“When you look at our music videos now it is more prudent and makes business sense for an artist to stand at Aburi, a fort, castle to shoot rather than shoot near a Ferrari or Lamborghini… when you even look at the dressing it has changed, it is more of African print now. So you can see that there is a visible and clear indication that musicians here are now fusing our culture into music videos. However is it the direction of the Ministry? Has the Ministry contributed to it? that I don’t know”
Okyeame Kwame
Siding with Peter Sedufia’s assertion, Okyeame Kwame mentioned that indeed there can be a national agenda by the government to help promote the culture of Ghana.
He said: “In Kenya, if you shoot your music by a tourist site you get some tax being paid to you as an artist. The government can do so much to help infuse our culture in our music and movies. For instance with Ghana Music Awards, they can designate one award for an artist who will shoot music videos solely in our traditional social fiber and everyone will rush to do something like that”.
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