Movies of Thursday, 29 January 2015
Source: Razz Newspaper
It was highly expected that, after suffering such abuse and ridicule from his contemporary filmmaker, Socrate Safo – Chief Executive Officer of Venus Films, Abdul Salam Mumuni, will fire back.
After the closure of the Ghana Movie Awards, Socrate Safo has criticized Salam over his decision to flout the directive of FIPAG for its members not to submit any work for categorization and nomination at the just-ended Movie Awards organized by Fred Nuamah.
Abdul Salam told the paper that he is extremely disappointed with his friend, Socrates, who sat on Peace FM’s ‘Entertainment Review’ a couple of weeks ago and abused him.
Salam questioned the relevance of Socrate Safo in the movie industry at this moment: “Is Safo still in the Ghanaian movie industry? When was the last time he shot a movie? When we are talking about the Ghanaian movie industry, he should be quiet. Ask Safo when was the last time he attended FIPAG meetings for him to be talking about FIPAG Issues?” he queried.
He stated that; if FIPAG should go ahead and ban him and Shirley Frimpong-Manso because of their so-called sanity then, they (FIPAG) have an intention of killing the film industry and that, FIPAG can’t take any decision against them, because in Ghana, there’s freedom of Association.
“If they decide to ban us then they should be ready to shoot movies that will represent Ghana. Some people don’t know the law so sometimes when they speaking they don’t know what to say and when you don’t know the law – you just be talking rubbish,” he added.
Narrating how his movies got to the organizers of Ghana Movie Awards, he said that; Fred Nuamah is his longtime friend so this particular year, Fred walked into his office to pick up the movies himself without his (Salam’s) verification.
As to why he did not obey the orders of FIPAG, an association he belongs to, he stated that, he did not receive any letter or formal note from any executive member of FIPAG that he shouldn’t submit his movies, rather, it was Socrate Safo who called him during the nomination release to query him on why he submitted his movies and he gave Socrate Safo the same reasons.
According to Abdul Salam, Fred Nuamah is not new to the industry, and on record, he (Fred) has been assisting the industry for ages, so, all he needs is encouragement to be able to organize the awards well.
“FIPAG and Socrate Safo are not encouraging people; they should go and learn from Nigeria and how things work there. In Ghana, we have freedom of association so – no one can stop anyone from shooting or submitting his movies to any awards scheme. I am into various associations, I can form my own association and things will work out so what are they talking about,” he asked.
He concluded that, anytime he’s called to a FIPAG meeting, he will attend and whatever they decide on, he will be waiting patiently for it.