Female director behind 'Stonebwoy's Mightylele' shares work experience

There has been a paradigm shift in our gender and profession issues here in Ghana over the past few years and this change has been very significant in the confidence today’s woman possesses.

However, despite the fact that women are actively competing in various professional fields, video directing is experiencing a major gender imbalance.

It is against this background that the DAILY HERITAGE sought the expert view of the only known female music video director in Ghana concerning the subject. She is Edith Nwekenta, who is widely known for directing Stonebwoy’s ‘Mightylele’ music video.

She is of a strong conviction that the agenda of women directors is not pushed and therefore it has become commonplace for men to naturally assume that role.

She mentions that there is this stereotype that mostly prevents females from pursuing the art. “In my experience of being on set, women are automatically expected to be the video models, make-up artists, and producers. I was once mistaken for a lead video model on the set of a video that I was directing.”

The director, who is also an actress, said, “People focus too much on gender and not on the work that is being produced. It’s important to create content that is of a high quality regardless of your gender and this will get people talking and attract the right type of attention.”

But she believes there are still women behind the scenes of other audiovisual spaces like movies with a creative force, citing Nicole Amarteifio, who directed ‘An African City’ and Shirley Frimpong of Sparrow Productions.

She then suggested that “I think that by engaging women in conversations concerning the craft and putting them on (giving them opportunities) by stakeholders, this void can be filled. Also, men and women can come together to make this a common ground.”

On working with Stonebwoy, Ms Nwekenta stated, “It felt great! I think it’s important that women [should] know that we are capable of all types of jobs. I’m just happy that my work is being noticed and hopefully it opens doors for women that have similar aspirations.”

“I’m here to encourage women that being creative is equally a fun role to have as producing or writing or being in the video itself; with more women behind the scenes we are able to set the pace for what we want to see on our screens,” she indicated.

Ms Nwekenta, who is of both Ghanaian and Nigerian descent, is currently in Lagos working on a number of projects, from music videos to corporate and commercial contents.

“I just want to say that change is already occurring for women behind the scenes. 2018 is going to be a huge year for us!” she said.