Taking advantage of ‘Beasts’

The producers of ‘Beasts of No Nation’ ,the Africa themed movie of the moment, have embarrassed the organisers of Ghana Movie Awards(GMA)by asking them to withdraw the war drama from the competitive Awards.

According to a statement released by the film’s director, the owners had not authorised the submission of the movie for the awards.

The movie had dominated the Award nominations with 15 nominations including Best Picture and Best Directing.

No tears for the GMA over this embarrassment, as it is evident due diligence was not done. This piece is not about the snub either.

Beyond the shores of Ghana, Beasts of No Nation is being touted to earn nominations in the Oscar awards and has already taken an award in the 72nd Venice International film festival and has also received critical acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Now with such a movie that was entirely shot in Ghana, with a sizable Ghanaian cast, making waves on the interna

In the late 80s to mid-90s, Ghana was quite an attractive destination for international productions thanks to the foundation laid by our first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah who established the Ghana Film Industry Corporation (GFIC).

The GFIC also had some filming equipment that international film productions could rely on and not have to import all the equipment they needed.

But not only that, GFIC produced a cadre of competent film crew who serviced any foreign film production coming into the country.

Examples of major international film projects that came into Ghana are ‘Ali’, starring Will Smith; ‘Deadly Voyage’, featuring the then unsung Chiwetel Ejiofor;  ‘Dying of the Light’, ‘Cobra Verde’, ‘Sankofa’, ‘African Timber’ etc. this influx of international productions further fertilised the local film industry, transferring skills and exposing local crew to international best practices in the film industry.

This is the foundation that the Ghanaian film industry should have built on. But alas, the Ghana Film Industry Corporation is no more,(liquidated) most of the crop of internationally exposed film crew are old and dying out and in the last decade and a half, Ghana has ceased to be the attractive destination it once was to international film productions.

Now most international film productions look to South Africa, Kenya or Morocco when they want to film in Africa. Actually Ghana would have lost Beasts of No Nation to South Africa if it had not been for the fact that the director was looking for a particular look (I believe rainforest vegetation) which South Africa didn’t have

“..Everyone was saying the only option was South Africa, because of its strong  infrastructure and history of servicing movies…South Africa’s tax incentives would also minimise the equity exposure we had to risk..,”Cary Fukunaga the film’s director and Riva Marker, the producer, revealed to Variety.com.

The filmmakers had to make sure the movie could be bonded and insured Equipment had to be sourced from the U.S., U.K. and South Africa. In order to get the cooperation of Ghana’s military, “We basically squatted on their doorstep until we got all the papers signed,” he says.

“Nearly three dozen crew were imported to work with the Ghanaian team,.. Facilities were bare-bones and trying to get everyone on board with the style of filmmaking that we wanted to do was a huge learning curve,” He added.

It is quite evident that now, Ghana is not quite an attractive filmmaking destination for international productions. To get there, much concerted effort has to be made.

Some may wonder why we need to get our house in order to attract international film productions. After all our own local film industry ‘Kumawood’ and ‘Ghallywood’ are doing OK entertaining our populace.

All around the world, countries fall over themselves to attract foreign film projects into their countries because film budgets are big (especially those coming from Hollywood).

One film project coming into your country could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars if not a couple of millions being spent in your economy.

According to a 2013 study released by South Africa’s department of Trade and Industry, South Africa’s film industry contributed 3.5 billion rand to that nation’s GDP.

Now, wouldn’t Ghana with its persistently depreciating cedi, benefit from more international film productions coming into the country and bringing in much needed foreign exchange?

Besides the income and ripple effect on the economy, there is the dividend of skills transfer which builds the local industry and in the long term could make the nation a filmmaking hub, exporting films to a global audience.

As the Oscar Awards season draws near,  and if ‘Beasts’ gets nominated, a lot of attention and shine would be reflected onto  Ghana and it is up to us to take advantage of  it.

Is there any official website promoting filming in Ghana that any Hollywood executive interested in filming in Ghana can go to for information?

Is there any ‘fit for purpose’ office established to handle foreign studios interested in filming in Ghana? Can’t we institute in the Ghana film industry some of the tax incentives that is attracting international film projects to South Africa for example?

As democracy and political stability take root in Africa, the attention of the world’s film industries would come onto Africa, and in the near future, African stories would be becoming more attractive to major studios.

This is a future that we in Ghana have to prepare to harvest.

THE AUTHOR

Mr. Patrick Yaadar is a screenwriter film director.(Slaveboy,2013;I Hold Unto Him,2012)

He started his career at TV3 as producer-director of the station’s

flagship entertainment program “Goldblast”.Since 2001 he has been

writing and directing feature films and documentaries