Entertainment of Friday, 1 December 2017
Source: citifmonline.com
2017-12-01
Ghanaian movie producer, Shirley Frimpong-Manso
Ghanaian movie producer, Shirley Frimpong-Manso has said that one way to revive the Ghanaian movie industry is to encourage people to patronise cinemas.
She said this in an interview with Bola Ray on Starr FM last Wednesday when she outlined some challenges of the film industry.
“Ghanaians love to go out so we need to encourage the culture of cinemas. Even for us as a people it opens our minds and open our imaginations,” she said.
Award winning Ghanaian film director and producer also said that the patronage of Ghanaian movies and series has dipped as compared to the eras of former presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kuffour.
“I don’t think we’re getting enough support from Government when it comes to the art and I’m not talking about present but I’m talking about for as long as my memory goes back to when Rawlings was and I feel like I saw a lot more on our screens. President Rawlings did support the art then because I was young then and I saw a lot more on our screens, the days of showcase in all major languages, Tv theatre and of course we have the National Theatre, it seems like every Sunday there was something going on there and we had the trade fair as well,” she noted.
“With President Kuffour, honestly I can hardly say though during his time was that there was quiet a boom in the movie industry. These were the times we did the ‘Adams Apple’, ‘Perfect Picture’, the DVD market at that time was great and we made a lot of money and it seem like a general feel where people had money to spend, they would buy three, four DVDs at ago,” Shirley added.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Sparrow Productions, stakeholders in the movie industry are yet to experience new changes in the movie industry as promised by the current government.
“There is a creative art council and I have had meetings with them and we are yet to see what’s going to happen… eleven (11) months into it, I’ve not seen anything. I think the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture is quiet active and I’ve seen her engage in a lot conversation but we’re yet to see the deeds as in the fruits because we’re still talking about the same thing. Recently when the budget was read, there were few people who were quiet angry about the fact that we weren’t paid particular attention to so there are still problems, the conversations are still happening. I’m still optimistic otherwise I won’t be able to wake up in the morning,” she stated.
Shirley recently released her latest movie ‘Potato Potahto’ which has been premiered in Ghana, other African countries and has made good showing on international film festivals.
