Telenovelas are not better than Ghanaian movies - Pascal Amanfo

Ghanaian movie director, Pascal Amanfo has described as appalling the numerous foreign telenovelas on Ghanaian TV screens, adding those productions are not better than movies and series by Ghanaian producers.

According to him, owners of Ghanaian TV stations only relish showing such productions during prime time TV because they are ‘cheap’ to acquire.

However, he said they unfortunately, don’t like to spend on acquiring very good productions by Ghanaians.

The worse part he bemoaned, was the lack of broadcast law by the state to regulate foreign content on local TV during prime time.

Pascal was speaking at the African Woman in Film Forum held at Alliance Francaise in Accra on Monday, to empower women filmmakers when he made the comment.

“Are you telling me Shirley Frimpong Manso and co are not doing well…but because it is wavy hair and white skin, there is a craze for it and like Mr. Hackman, president of Film Producers Association (FIPAG) said there is no broadcast law and these telenovelas are very cheap. I think they are bought 150 dollars per episode so you can buy a whole season of them. All people see is Lagata was a success and now they brought When My Mother Is Lost,” he added.

Currently Ghanaian TV stations have been feeding indigenes with foreign cultures via a lot more telenovelas and there is a lot of craze for it.

Beyond that TV operators organize beach parties and all kind of outdoor programmes to engage audience of these telenovelas.

Most of these audiences who often complain about local productions talk about the quality.

But Pascal said they were aware of the challenges in the movie industry. It could only get better if they support each other.

“We know we have challenges in our movies but we will get there with the right support,” he concluded.