Telenovelas polluting rich Ghana culture – ASOG member

A board member of the Copyright Society of Ghana now Audiovisual Society of Ghana (ASOG) Stanley S.S Sackey has lamented the influx of Telenovelas on most television screens instead of promoting the rich Ghanaian culture.

He told Anita Erskine and Giovanni on Veterans Thursday on Starr Drive that the Telenovelas only promote profanity which in turn affects the Ghanaian culture. He blamed the TV stations for the latest development.

“You see Telenovelas on almost all the Television stations in Ghana. It’s disheartening. Most Television stations are the worst offenders, they prefer to buy peanuts telenovelas so they show this foreign culture,” Sackey stated.

The Film Producer and Director stated governments do not understand the film industry, adding that “films can be used to brand Ghana, film is an exportable commodity, we can use film to re-orient people within the country. Most countries like Nigeria, America etc are exporting films to make so much money, why are we not exporting film to make money”.

Sackey expressed disappointment in the current film industry. “I’m not impressed, we could have done better than where we find ourselves now, we can tell our stories without the friction, without unnecessary quarrels, it’s strange that you watch our films and we are always quarreling and even the Nigerians have had the opportunity to tell a few guys that what we are doing now is giving negative impression about our culture and our image, we can do better than what we are doing now, we can turn all the negatives into positives.”

According to him, what is churned out in most Ghanaian movies, especially depicts false image about the Ghanaian culture.

He said: “The Film Policy is hanging somewhere, there are no directions in the film industry. There are no clear cut policies in producing movies in Ghana. Like the Americans, anybody who produces a movie must have the American flag somewhere and the name of the country must be portrayed positively, but you cannot use Ghana flags in movies. Nobody tells you what to do.

“Whereas other countries use their flags in movies to brand and sell the country, it’s different here in Ghana.”