Help! We have a confused film industry

The Ghana film industry has been teetering on the brink of collapse for years, although some brave filmmakers remain and continue to release movies.

The issues confronting the industry are glaring but shockingly, the filmmakers who are heavily threatened are not united on ideas on how to address these challenges while the associations and various groupings that were strategically initiated to help with industry-related matters are clueless.

The industry is bedeviled with problems of funding, distribution, marketing and patronage yet some are feverishly looking for signatures for a petition and others claim they are looking beyond that. Some are also bent on going on demonstration to express their disdain for the telecast of telenovelas on our television screens.

Meanwhile, the persons elected or appointed to lead various associations in finding solutions to the telling problems are just joking around.

To sign or not to sign?

Actress/film producer, Yvonne Nelson, may have gained critical acclaim for her successful organisation of the demonstration against the incessant power outage, popularly dubbed, ‘DumsorMustStop’ – a situation that crippled the industry.

She is, however, not finding it easy with this one; getting signatures from industry players for a petition to be presented to government on the lack of funding for the film industry.

While some filmmakers have backed Yvonne, others, like Juliet Asante, have openly shot down the move to accumulate signatures and present a petition to government.

She brazenly calls the move showmanship, downplaying the essence of putting together signatures and making a case for funding. She claims that the industry’s problems go beyond signatures and petitions.

The originator of the Black Star International Film Festival is of the conviction that, the core problems of the industry are related to infrastructure, policies amongst others.

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Demonstration against telenovelas

While the likes of Juliet Asante and Yvonne Nelson, two influential players within the industry, are of divergent views on what is troubling the industry, the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) is also on another tangent – the fight against foreign content.

The producers claim they are becoming jobless because local movies are not selling anymore. They even have a problem with the dubbing of the telenovelas into local languages and for these reasons, among many others, they are willing to hit the streets, waste precious time in the sun to demonstrate.

But wait, there’s more banality; they are going to present a petition to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II so he can intervene. That’s how confused the industry is! How these producers figured out that the showing of these telenovelas is the bane of the film industry is incomprehensible. Their thinking that dubbing of telenovelas into any local language is wrong, beats my imagination.

So, telenovelas are the reason there’s no form of funding or government succour for the industry? It is also responsible for the dearth of infrastructure and policies in the industry and surely, it is to blame for the lack of interest in Ghanaian productions. Get the heck out of here!

Amazingly, these guys at the helm of associations like FIPAG are of the conviction that the Film Bill, which is now Law, is the panacea to most of our problems but needs a Legislative Instrument to make it enforceable – and that is Otumfuo’s duty to fix!

In their fickle minds, they also believe that the Cultural Policy, which has a stipulation of 70 percent Ghanaian content and 30 percent foreign content on television plus the provision of the Film Fund, but are not enforceable - are all problems for Otumfuo to fix. Clap for yourselves, geniuses!

Disunity, disorganization and directionless

Every figure in the industry feels he/she knows what the problems of the industry are and has the right module (s) for tackling them. They pontificate their respective ideologies, however lame or sound it may be and expect unflinching support from the rest.

Ideally, the actors, producers and directors, regardless of the fact that they are entitled to their opinions, have groups they belong to, where they can easily meet, deliberate and project their issues to the appropriate quarters as a unified force.

Yvonne Nelson and Juliet Asante, as actors, are supposed to be part of the Ghana Actors Guild, but are they? They have no inkling as to who manages the affairs of the Guild or when their last meeting was held.

Again, as producers, Yvonne and Juliet are supposed to be the part of the Film Producers Association of Ghana, but are they? They have no clue who steers the affairs of FIPAG or when their last meeting was held.

Unfortunately, because of the cavalier attitude being exhibited by the likes of Yvonne and Juliet for such groupings, the consortiums have been left with persons who have no clue on how to effectively oversee the associations and the industry in general.

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Get your act together or weep till thy kingdom come

Governments have come and gone, and will continue to come and go, and the movie industry would continue to have issues. Successive governments have heard the grousing of the film industry for years, but they always come up with one response: “You guys are not united.”

Not only is the film industry disunited, it is disorganised and confused. One simple issue and every stakeholder has a divergent view on how it should be put across and addressed. Coming together to even champion one cause has become such a herculean task.

The persons who have been voted into power for groupings like FIPAG, ARSOG and the Guild are selfish, money-conscious, visionless and have relegated the essential element of unifying all members to the background.

With the refusal of players and stakeholders to realise that they need to work together as a formidable force, they will continue to lament in isolation. Those who will get media attention will, those who will use it for showmanship will and those will go on fruitless and silly demonstrations will – but at the end of the day, these same old issues would persist!

Email: arniebaidoo@yahoo.co.uk
Twitter: @ArnoldBaidoo