Ghanaian Cinema - Have we sold our birthright?

There seems to be a thought abroad that Ghana needs to make more movies. As in, we need a lot more movies to have a successful industry. More producers, good or bad. Cattle.

Reason: To be noticed by CNN.

Not only do I find that submission preposterous to the arts, I find it very naive.
I doubt CNN is the standard. Being on CNN does not mean you've made a good film. Being on CNN means you are in the news. It can go both ways; good or bad.

I own a couple of documentaries on Nollywood Filmmaking through the eyes of an outsider and I also came across this article last week: Ghana Filmmaking
Here's the kicker. Assuming Ghana film industry is on CNN and someone decides to pick up a couple of our films to watch, what will they think? It's not about being on CNN. It's about being there for the right reasons. Being there with the right material.

The documentaries on Nollywood were very sad to watch. I'm sure the people being interviewed had no idea they were going to be made into acts of ridicule. No industry person would ever, ever watch that documentary and dream about Nollywood. Seriously. The worst part is the arrogance displayed by some of the filmmakers in these documentaries. Sadly they had no idea the people making the documentaries were simply making a mockery of them.

This is why Nollywood is so popular and to an extent lucrative: The kind of stories they tell. I'll watch a Nollywood film before a Ghanaian film because they tell human stories. Stories we can all relate to as Africans. Nollywood films have an identity. From the casting, to the locations, to the acting. Uplifting films. Think about Tyler Perry fare with terrible production value. But forget the production value. The stories hit home. The performances hit home. Mind you, I am not referring to the current glossy, weird looking girls running around Nollywood, but what Nollywood was in the 90s or so. I remember watching a Nollywood film called Speak the Word. gosh, I cried. I cried. That is the reason Nollywood is so popular. FAMILIARITY. It is the same analogy behind the popularity of Agya Koo/Kumawood in Ghana. Stories that hit home. The performance from that actor who just reminds you of your landlord.

The majority of Ghanaians cannot relate to fancy cars, fancy homes, and fancy ways of speaking English. The majority cannot relate to The Prince of Agukigayukile Kingdom. Really? John Dumelo as Prince Chaspian of Kulikuli? How on earth is that supposed to suspend my disbelief?

Ghana movies survive largely on fantasies and desires. People watch these unrealistic offerings with hope. They are ideals they aspire for. Might never achieve it, but that hope is a temporary fix. I too shall one day drive a BMW like Yvonne Nelson did in that movie. Ohhh, did you see Jackie's dress. I'll sew it. 

Wonder why Ghanaian actors are stiff and stilted? They are not acting in honest material. There is nothing for them to relate to. Nothing hits home. When I spoke to Omotola during rehearsals for Ties That Bind, I told her about my grandmother and all the children she'd lost. Omotola calmly responded; the story feels realistic to me because I have a relation who also lost a large number of children.
I felt so at ease. My concern was how she could be honest about the pain of Adobea. But, my fears were abated when she said that. She had a reference point. HONESTY.

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When Sinking Sands was named one of the 10 best African films of the 21st century on CNN, I was far from excited. I kept asking myself, would I be ridiculed? Can I compare it to films like Dreams of Dust, Yeelen, Beat the Drum etc? Do I even deserve to be there? I am still concerned and I never even talk about it because I am not sure I made a good enough film. If there is anyone tough on me, it's myself.

Just like that article, going on CNN with a bad product, does nothing but sink Africa deeper in the mud of disrespect that the world already has for us.

Ghana does not need more films. What Ghana needs, is to stop glorying in mediocre work and cheap thrills. If in 2014, you find it fascinating that an Ipad was used in a film or that underwater housing, or gunfire is used, then we have issues.  If the audience do not know the difference between mediocrity and exceptional work, then in the land of the blind, the one eyed man will always be the leader. The audience have as many issues as the filmmakers.

I think Ghana needs to be exposed to a different form of film. Films from other African countries. Our taste for the arts needs to be altered. Then we can begin to demand for intelligent films. Outside Kwaw Ansah and King Ampau, I can't think of any filmmaker making films with any form of identity. Our culture, our way of life, things that make us who we are. Until we are proud of ourselves and show the world we are, no one will be proud of us. Remember, Hollywood is only interested in the darkness that Africa is.

If I see a Ghanaian movie on CNN, I also want to see that film given critical acclaim by the rest of the world. When I watch African films from Francophone Africa, I can taste each scene. Who cares about fancy clothes and cars and foreign ways of life when we have such rich images right there in Africa? Look at Bollywood? China? Japan? South Africa? They have not traded their identity for something they are not.

People will think what they want to think. No point making watered down films in the name of showing that we have fancy houses in Africa. They don't want to know. Show them first, that we are intelligent, in doing that, half of the work is done. When our films start to open festivals, you can begin to talk about the fancy houses a select few in Africa have, whiles the majority still live in poverty. Sorry, did I just mess up my patriotic adulation?

I'm sure people are googling Kenya because of Lupita Nyong'o.