Entertainment of Friday, 13 April 2018

Source: Michael Ola

The Ghana International Film Week comes off in May

The Ghana Film Industry has been one of the most challenged industries of the country. The industry which used to employ hundreds of thousands of people, is now living in the doldrums. Little or no productions are seen or witnessed these days.



Most industry players have accused politicians of neglect, others profess a lot of reasons for this sad suspended animation of the hitherto vibrant industry. Not even the Kumawood, which seemed to be the most functional, in the former state of the industry, is seen with activities of productions these days.



Actors are now involved in various forms of TV jobs and YouTube channel presentations, directors are home, struggling to feed families, the producers are struggling to find other jobs to do while the distributors have now turned their resources into other forms of businesses. Until recently a lot of young men and women were seen in the traffics selling newly released movies and old ones. Now we don’t see them as we used to. A clear sign of the struggles of the Ghana film industry.



While some people struggle to find words to describe the state of the industry, others boldly say the industry is dead! If indeed it is dead, then nothing else can be done about it. A dead industry means all players and stakeholders should throw up hands in despair and move on to find other things to do.



Some industry players, however, believe the industry is challenged and not dead. They believe the troubles of the erstwhile vibrant film industry is structural and institutional. The structural challenge has to do with the stakeholders themselves, while the institutional challenge has to do with the Government institutions supposed to work for, on behalf and with the industry to find solutions.



In this light, a group of the industry stakeholders, led by MKON MEDIA, an events and film production company, has put together an event to address these problems. The event is dubbed; The Ghana International Film Week. This they say is the phase one.



This is the event they believe will help bring together the stakeholders and the government institutions responsible for the industry, to find solutions towards rebuilding the Ghanaian film industry. The theme is REBUILDING OUR INDUSTRY. It is happening from the 5th to the 12th of May,2018. It has three days of intensive workshop and training for the industry players in Tamale, Kumasi, Takoradi and Accra. These workshops, supported by the Indian embassy, will happen simultaneously ditto the Cleanup exercises, health screening and the blood donation exercises happening on the 5th of May, at these same regions.



While the workshops are ongoing, leaders and stakeholders of the industry will be having discussions with government and private institutions, in a three days’ conference at the Accra Tourism Information center conference room. The purpose of the conference is targeted at finding solutions for the problems of the industry, drafting policies for the film industry, unifying the stakeholders front and positioning the industry for reactivation.



This is a huge task on the shoulders of the organizers and the industry and they will need support of all film lovers, cooperate institutions and individuals to help in any way possible to make this happen. If they can go through this one-week event, it is possible new sigh of hope will be breathed into the industry. The dates for the event are 5th to the 12th of May, 2018. The event is happening in four regions of Ghana; Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western, and the Northern Region.



Let us all help to rebuild the Ghana film industry.





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