Socrate Sarfo intervenes as Ashaiman movie makers demonstrate over decision to build film village

Aggrieved and concerned members of the film industry has embarked on a “no support, no vote” demonstration against government and cooperate film authorities over lack of support and growth of the film industry.

According to a video sighted by sammyflex.com which went viral on social media, the aggrieved film makers were spotted in a very heated mood expressing their anger and grievances over lack of support from government to the film industry.

According to them, the government allocates monies for the arts and culture but they don’t know where the monies are always pumped into. They further demanded the government to build cinemas and also introduce pen drive sales into the system because DVDs are no longer in existence.

“We want the government to support us because it’s a profession and people also get employment in the industry. He should build us cinemas and also replace DVDs with pen drives. The beef be simple. It is a no support, no vote” they lamented.

Speaking with Socrates Sarfo who is a film producer and also an executive member of the Creative Arts Council in a phone interview on “Showbiz Agenda” on Zylofon FM 102.1, he told the host Sammy Flex that even though the group embarked on a good demonstration, it should have been directed to colleague film makers but not the government.

According to him, there were many cinemas in the country in the past but it was they the ( film makers) themselves who decided to take their films to TV stations instead of the Cinemas.

“Sammy, their demonstration was good but it was directed to a wrong target. They should have directed it to their colleague film makers because they killed the market. We had about 20 cinemas in Accra but it was later closed down because movie producers decided to take their films to TV stations. The government didn’t kill the industry but we the film makers did,” he narrated.



According to him, film makers preferred taking their films to the TV stations which people got to watch in their homes ignoring going to the cinemas which killed the market.

Talking about controversies around poor quality of films, Mr Socrates Sarfo revealed that when film makers took their films to the TV stations, turn out at cinemas were low which investments were reduced largely leading to the poor quality of films.

“For the quality, when people got the movies to watch at their homes because film makers took them to the TV stations, the numbers at the cinemas reduced. We had to also reduce investments because when you produce quality movies, you wouldn’t get your money. They should stop the mentality that we are chopping big monies because I can put it on record that we are not being paid. I joined the government because I wanted to revive the industry. Sammy you know politics is not my career. Even if the cinemas are built and film makers don’t stop the act of taking their films to the TV stations, the industry wouldn’t survive,” he concluded.