Since its debut on air the One Show on VIASAT 1 has hosted a select core of Ghana’s mainstream movie stakeholders to discuss at length possible ways of giving the industry, a facelift.
This time around Actors Adjetey Annang, AKA Pusher, Yvonne Okoro, Ecow Smith Asante; and producer Abdul Salaam Mumuni, took turns to answer questions from the show’s hosts; spanning content and new trends.
All agreed that given the gradual but impressive pace of improvement the industry is experiencing, it would be proper to adequately match that goodwill with international best practices and an equally good local system to take care of the inefficiencies. However they came down heavily on recent trends of nudity in modern Ghanaian movie. Adjetey Annan bemoaned the superfluity of nudity in the Ghanaian movie industry and feared that if the trend continues, Ghana can’t compete favourably with the other markets. “An actor/actress has his/her culture and image and the part to be played in a movie, to protect. Our movie industry is falling short. With this, we cannot compete with the top class movies and will still remain at the bottom,” Pusher said.
Yvonne Okoro, Ecow Smith Asante complemented Pusher’s argument by pointing out that the industry is gradually drifting off and called on all filmmakers to understand that movies are meant to inculcate good morals and culture into the people, the basic essence of production, and nothing else.
This discussion comes barely a week after the Information Ministry called on the Ghanaian Movie industry to put in place strong systems in order to strengthen its activities. Deputy Information Minister Baba Jamal complained that although movies were powerful tools that influenced and impacted lives, current trends in Ghanaian movies were nothing to write home about. "We are gradually losing our culture and identity as Ghanaians because of the negative ways in which we portray ourselves in our movies”.
