Creatives in government are functioning, they're just not communicating - Socrate Safo

Renowned film producer and director, Socrate Safo, has challenged the notion that creatives in government positions are ineffective and powerless.

Socrate Safo, who is also the Director for Creative Arts at the National Commission on Culture (NCC), said that the problem was not the lack of achievements, but the lack of awareness among industry players.

He made these remarks as part of the Graphic Showbiz X (Twitter) Dialogue series, where he said that the true stories of their work had not been told.

“Unfortunately, people think that having creatives in political positions is not relevant since they don’t make any impact but that is not true and they are not failures.

“I have said time and time again that things are happening but keeping industry players updated has become a challenge, thereby creating the impression that creatives in political positions are failures.

“There are so many things happening behind the scenes, such as the National Theatre splitting costs with creatives to enable them to successfully host their events. This lessens the burden of production costs.,” he said.

Citing the case of the Ghanaian comedy industry, which is currently booming, Socrate Safo said that the progress of the industry was due to an intervention from a government official.

“A few years ago, Ghanaian comedians were condemned for not being talented but today they are all over the place because an industry person in government took the initiative to support them.

“Today, the story is different and they are making an impact and filing auditoriums like the National Theatre because a creative holding government position who understands the system worked to make it happen,” he stated.

He added that the issue was not the performance of the political appointees, but the communication of their work.

“If the person in there is doing things, but is silent about them, that does not mean nothing is happening. There are two sides to this, but communication is the problem. So it is not that they are failures,” he said.

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