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It seems there is no much revolution going on in the Ghanaian film industry.
In reference to the just ended awards season culminating in the
Oscars, there was a lot of thoughts of diversity or different opinions.
Ghana, indeed, got swept up in it all with everything that Beasts of No
Nation and our super star Abraham Attah brought to the party. We look
forward to 10,000 of us being slicker in our new foot ware too as
Ghanaians.
And now as a new cycle begins are we going to to sit back
and wait years and years for our involvement in world cinema again?Or
not? But maybe, just maybe not. On Wednesday 2nd March, New York, the
Tribeca Film Festival no less announced their 55 of their 101 selections
from 6626 films entries submitted.
Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal,
and Craig Hatkoff founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002 with the
mission of contributing to the revitalization of lower Manhattan in the
wake of the September 11 disaster. Thirteen years later, the Festival
has grown at a remarkable pace and brings together members of the
international film community and movie-lovers of the US greatest and
most diverse city to celebrate the power of film.
Now you tell me
the chances of a debut feature film by a female Ghanaian director being
one of the first 55. My maths is not that good but snuggled right there
in the list under Viewpoints is a film called “Children of the Mountain”
(USA/Ghana).
The writer, director, a producer is Priscilla Anany.
Priscilla was born in Ghana and emigrated to the US in 2003. She studied
Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina and a Masters in
Communication at NYU. It is her first full feature film having done
mainly short films in the past. There is one, in particular, called
“Korji (Hospitals)” which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival
2013.
This is her first full-length feature film, and there are aspects of the film that make it somewhat of a rarity.
Firstly the subject matter; A woman who has a child with cerebral palsy
and a cleft lip then believes she can get healing for this child. She
wonders from disappointment to disappointment trying to leverage her
meagre earnings as a yam trader in the market.
The new film is
set in Accra, Ghana and also a remote village in the Volta region of the
country by Lake Volta. From the look of the trailer, this should make
for some beautiful scenery.
Next the film is in Twi and Ewe with
English subtitles. It stars a fresh Ghanaian/Nigerian actor called
Rukiyat Masud who has done films like “Chelsea”, “Black Beauty” and
“Sorrow of Madness”. She nowadays lives and does a lot of work in
Nigeria and is not as well known in Ghana. However she is so ably
supported by some industry heavyweights like Akofa Edjeani, Adjetey
Anang, Grace Omaboe (Maame Dokunu), Dzifa Glikpoe, William Addo
(Akpatseh) and Bex. One can just imagine the level of acting to expect
from an ensemble like this.
So what does this represent to the
Ghanaian film industry? Well as far, as can be seen, this film
represents the first full-length feature film, produced in Ghana and by a
Ghanaian to be officially selected for such a major internationally
recognised film festival. Yes, we have and are producing lots of films
year in year out, but whether they are submitted to such film festivals
or not is anyone’s guess.
Films are submitted in their thousands to
the major festivals. Sundance this year had over 12,793 films submitted
of which they chose only 122 features and 72 shorts. We’ve seen the
numbers above for Tribeca who knows what the numbers are for Cannes,
however for Ghanaian films to make headway and bring our culture to the
world it is important that they are put up against the international
standards and exposed to a wider audience. We would then be able to
build a viable industry in film, which will in turn, affect the way the
country is viewed, bring in more tourism and truly change lives.
The
success of Priscilla in being able to get her film into this
prestigious festival needs to be proclaimed everywhere. We need all
Ghanaians talking about it and supporting the cast to make it a huge
affair in an international city like New York.
Ghana has a huge
community in New York, and all Ghanaians there should make it a point to
go and see this truly Ghanaian film. If we push this, it could get into
even more and bigger festivals and who knows next year there could be a
whole set of Ghanaians at the Academy Awards and not just to present an
award! “Children Of The Mountain” premiere’s in Ghana on July 1, 2016,
Republic Day Meanwhile for more information on the film, one can engage
with the producers on social media;
www.facebook.com/childrenofthemountainfilm.
Twitter @cotmfilm and Instagram @cotmfilm
Look out for the hash tags
#ThisAfricanFilm #cotmfilm #indiefilm and
#tribeca2016
