From: Francis Ameyibor, GNA Special Correspondent, Lagos.
Lagos, July 11, GNA - Ghana Sector of the International Federation of Film Critics, (fIPRESCI) on Tuesday urged Ghanaian writers and filmmakers to collaborate to produce the necessary recuperative work required by the Ghana Film Industry.
"An alliance between filmmakers and producers of the literature is very urgent for the necessary transformation needed to fill the insatiable appetite of Ghanaian film audience," It added.
The call was made in a statement issued on behalf of fIPRESCI in Lagos, Nigeria at the end of a two-day International Film Critics Workshop at Ijebu Ode, Ogun State by Mr Francis Ameyibor an Associate Executive.
Other fIPRESCI Executives who attended the workshop on the theme; "Sociological Representation In Contemporary Films", were Mr Hamza Rudolph Asumda and Mrs Rita Safowaa Sampong all of the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) of Ghana.
Mr Ameyibor noted that Ghanaian writers were not only good story tellers, but had proven to be story-tellers concerned not primarily with material gratification, but rather with the overall well-being of the community.
He said they entertained, instructed and enlightened the propagation of Ghana's cultural heritage, without necessarily glorifying superstition or deliberately demonising religion and custom. The fIPRESCI Associate Executive said Ghanaian writers had the ingredients to enrich and 'radicalise' Ghanaian films to boost their revenue potential.
Mr Ameyibor noted that currently the Ghanaian film environment was fertile for alternative educative but yet entertaining film, "there is an urgent need for alternative films to replace the bloody, juju, and criminal minded ones from other countries beaming on our screens." He suggested the selection of already successful films currently in circulation and adapted from novels with dramatic plays that could yield exciting film scripts for the screens.
Mrs Sampong appealed to Ghanaian Filmmakers to collaborate with Critics for the growth of the industry, stressing, "we all seek to inject modern dynamism into the industry."
Meanwhile Film Critics from Ghana and Nigeria have in a Communiqu=E9 issued at the end of the two day International Film Critics Workshop in Nigeria, called for closer collaboration between Filmmakers and Critics.
They contended that "Film Critics are not experts of taste and virtue but rather a film critic is an individual who gives his reason in a debate of opinion and bring out different ways of understanding a film."
The Critics also called for the introduction of Film Criticism as part of curriculum of film training institutions. 11 July 06
