Popular Ghanaian actor, Adjetey Anang, has added his voice to the growing number of criticism against a leading Member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko, over a degenerating comments made by the later about the Ghanaian movie industry.
Adjetey Anang who waded into the issue which has already been tackled by some actress including Kafui Danku, Yvonne Nelson and Lydia Forson expressed his disappointment about Mr Otchere-Darko’s post.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, October 13, the managing editor of the New Statesman Newspaper said he was very disappointed after randomly watching 10 Ghanaian movies which he did not name.
In the post, Gabby compared the Ghanaian movie industry to Hollywood saying our industry plays a peripheral role in the country’s development agenda.
Here is the post:
In a letter posted on his Facebook page, Adjetey Anang popularly known as Pusher “schooled” Mr Otchere-Darko about the numerous challenges faced by the movie industry.
Adjetey questioned why the politician would use derogatory words to describe the industry when subsequent government including the NPP government had done nothing to push the fortunes of the industry.
Here is the letter: “Dear Mr. Gabby Otchere-Darko, First of all, I appreciate that you add your voice to the need for us to move our nation beyond aid and the need for our creative works to contribute to development agenda.
Indeed, truly, Hollywood has been a front-runner in the promotion of America as a brand and has been a key contributor to the development of America and a great influence on their world and on ours.
Beyond what the major film studios and individual stakeholders have done, I am very sure you are also aware the major role played by American governments over the years.
Enabling environment for creative arts, enforcement of piracy laws, intellectual property laws, capacity building, tax incentives, etc. Most of the Hollywood movies you see are from the top 6 studios despite the fact that there are thousands of filmmakers in Hollywood; which implies that there are some crappy ones from the same America that do not get the same attention.
Which brings the question, which random movies from Ghana did u watch? I am very curious because of the blanket statement you made. I won’t even go into how individuals have fought and toiled to keep the industry alive with 100% owner’s equity financing of movies.
Many of our movies have made significant strides on the continent n beyond with individuals’ hard work. Reputable international airlines buy and show Ghanaian movies, reputable international film festivals and awards in Europe, US and across Africa acknowledge and duly recognize the quality of our films which have been painstakingly financed by individuals who have used their lifetime investments to nurture these dreams with the hope that someday the government of our nation will see that we are not looking for handouts and “sponsorship” but government’s interest that there is indeed an opportunity to make Ghana’s film industry an attractive investment venture and positively project the image of Ghana.
One would expect that after watching your “random movies”, you would engage stakeholders or individuals who keep financing our own works to keep our little flame alive by keeping our audiences entertained, educated and informed.
Tell us what you think we can do to improve the industry, what role your govt can play in giving us that needed support etc. I am very disappointed that you rather took to the media to voice your disappointment and in a very condescending way too, to rubbish our efforts.
We aren’t rubbish Sir. Many of us, like myself are highly educated, talented and exposed and we simply believe that this is an untapped gold mine for Ghana’s economy so despite the frustrating challenges and the lack of commensurate rewards for the volume of work we put in; we forge on… working hard night and day, positively projecting the image of Ghana everywhere we go; hoping that someday our star will shine.
Please make time to engage us and listen to us… as the Desiderata says *”…listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story*” we can together move this industry forward, if only your comments would be constructive and not condescending.
This issue is far from over as a number of stakeholders in the creative industry have also expressed their anger and are taking Mr Otchere-Darko to the cleaners.
