With Actors and Actresses Moving to Soap Land, What Happens To the Ghana Movie Industry? Sometimes I Wonder If We Have A Movie Industry At All…

Last week, it was reported and confirmed that Lydia Forson has joined South African soap Scandal. Today, AMAA Best Actor, Majid Michel has reportedly joined M-Net funded soap, Tinsel. What is happening in the Ghana Movie Industry? Are the actors and actresses simply being picky with scripts or there are no jobs for them in the country? I believe the latter is the case. Unfortunately, we don’t have a very diverse and versatile industry.

As it stands now, we don’t have many good actors and actresses in the industry. It’s the same faces we see all the time and some directors and producers are not ready and willing to help upcoming ones to climb the ladder. Some even opt to fly people into the country to shoot movies, so if the few we have are all sojourning, what really happens to the industry?

Some of the actors/actresses don’t have any source of livelihood apart from acting, so if productions houses are not busy, then there are no jobs for them. Majid Michel, after winning the AMAA award last year, has not featured in any major production so he will be forced to accept roles from other countries even if they are for soaps.

The Ghanaian movie industry needs help. What happens to all the students from the School of Performing Arts and NAFTI, after they graduate? The Movie industry cannot boast of FIVE good movies in a year. If certain production house/houses do not release a movie in a year, the whole industry is crippled, and that shouldn’t be the case. Sometimes, I even wonder if we really have a movie industry!

The whole of last year was pathetic, the only movie which had good reviews from notable media houses was just released when the year was coming to an end, so practically, last year was a no-show for good movies. (Movies were released, but I beg to differ).

If we’re all yearning to see Ghana’s creative industry on the world map, then a lot of work needs doing, and it really starts with improving and maintaining the good actors we have and giving them challenging roles and scripts for them to see their worth.

If a very good actress is still playing a role of a beginner, they’ll quickly grab any outside offer that comes to them without extensive assessment. I am tempted to say the government should fund movies but if wishes were horses…

The feeling is not that great when neighbouring countries mention that they’ve given our actors and actresses jobs or they ‘built’ our movie industry. What in your opinion will help improve our movie industry and maintain our actors and actresses?