Student films from the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) would be screened on cinema vans by the Information Services Department (ISD) as part of government’s drive to promote educational programmes.

Mr John Tia Akologu, Minister of Information, announced this at an event dubbed “An Evening with NAFTI” held on Friday, March 11, to showcase selected productions by final year students of NAFTI.

A statement issued by NAFTI in Accra on Tuesday said the productions that were screened included “Skin Canvass”, a documentary about tattoos, “Gazinga”, a feature on false prophets and “Vivor”, an animation about greed.

Mr Akologu, commenting on the productions, said he thoroughly enjoyed them and particularly learnt a lot from the documentary about tattoos. He commended the Institute for its good work in the training of professionals in the film and television industry, and said such enlightening productions would be included in cinema vans whose main purpose would be to advance educational programmes.

Mr Akologu announced that efforts were being made to pass the film bill which would bring some level of sanity to the industry, adding “The bill is currently before Cabinet.” Professor Linus Abraham, Rector of the Institute, said AFTI was set to chart a quality-assurance course to help improve professional quality in the film and television industry as well as ensure quality in the work of its students.“In line with this, not all final year films will be part of the NAFTI students’ festival as was previously the norm. Students will have to apply to enter their films in the festival and only those that are vetted and meet set standards of quality will have the opportunity to compete in the festival,” he said.

Prof. Abraham said the festival would be held biennially to ensure enough films for judging while “An Evening with NAFTI” would take place in the intervening years. “The day is young yet on this road of quality-assurance we have set ourselves and we are taking small steps,” he added. Mr Kwaw Ansah, CEO of Lifeforms Limited and past student of NAFTI, acknowledged the importance of NAFTI as the premiere film training institution in Ghana to the film industry.

He commended the institute for the good work it had done in training students over the years and asked that NAFTI continued to maintain the highest standards of training as well as promote the values of African aesthetics in student productions.

Ms Dorothy Gordon, Director General of Ghana India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, in admiration of the student productions that were screened asked for them to be shown at the Centre during Innovation Week, a week-long celebration of new media.

Mr Chris Nii Noi Ashong, Student Representative Council (SRC) President, expressed belief that the evening’s event while giving stakeholders an insight into the potential of the students would also provide them opportunity to network with industry professionals and possibly get them recruited after school.