A dirge for our cinema industry?

By Doreen Hammond

For a certain generation of Ghanaians, names of popular movie actors like Bruce Lee, Christopher Lee, who played Dracula and the images of Charlie Chaplain would remain in their minds perhaps forever, thanks to the cinema houses of old.
In those days, there was Opera in Accra Central, better known to the youth of the 1980s as ‘twe’ because it showed certain films at 12 noon. Many students got into trouble with ‘twe’ because they ran away from school to watch films such as Shaolin Master and Snake in the monkey’s shadow , in which Chinese karate fighters showed their skills as they flew high up in the sky and landed blows and kicks on their opponents on rooftops and horses.
Yet, it was difficult to understand the reason for the fights. It could range from revenge for pouring away tea meant for a great grandfather over 50 years ago to a fight supposed to maintain “the family honour”.
The whole country was littered with cinema houses. There were cinema houses such as Olympia at La, Roxy and Globe at Adabraka, Plaza at Mamprobi, Rex and Palladium in Accra, Oxford, Orion at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Dunia and Gaskia at Nima and Casino at Tema.
In the regions there were Mikado at Nsawam, Royal and Odium in Kumasi, Rex in Sunyani and Capitol in Koforidua, Tamale, Takoradi, Cape Coast, etc. These regional cinema houses, in addition to Palladium and Parks in Accra, were owned by a Ghanaian businessman, John Kabu Ocansey, who introduced cinema into Ghana in 1925.
Films were mainly imported and showed at these cinemas.
In those days, going to the cinema was exciting. Queuing to buy the ticket and buying popcorn, chewing gum and other sweets was a great experience. Then when the lights were switched off, the audience would first have to watch some few minutes of government propaganda documentaries and trailers before the real thing.
Little wonder, going to the cinema was part of wooing and a reward for children who had been of good behaviour.
Then came the video surge in the late 1980s, resulting in a decline in cinema attendance. With video tapes such as VHS and later JVC — some of which looked as big as boxes — video operators just needed to cover structures with blankets and cloth to prevent those who had not paid the fee from peeping. On benches, people paid a cheaper amount than they would pay for the big cinemas to watch films.
But there were more established video centres such as Video City at Lartebiokoshie. By the 1990s the hiring of video tapes had become brisk and profitable business as more people bought their own video decks but could not afford to buy more tapes.
With technological improvement in the shape and size of videos and their affordability, cinema attendance saw a complete dip as many Ghanaians stayed indoors to watch home videos. The introduction of compact discs (CDs) have further compounded the problem. There are a few private movie houses now but the two that come close to the big cinemas we used to have are GAMA Films and Silverbird at the Accra Shopping Mall. These are not open air, as the public cinemas used to be, though.
Today, many of those big cinemas stand as memory for what used to be a booming industry that provided employment to scores of people. Opera now houses a warehouse, a bank and small shops. The only thing that can be associated with cinema around the building now is the sale of CDs by some individuals at its entrance, which is now a bus terminal.
Most of the other cinemas are now venues for church services.
From the look of things, cinema, the way we used to know it back in the days, is dead. The question is: Should we bury it?
I put this question to Prof. Linus Abraham, the Rector of the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI), who thinks cinema should not be buried but resurrected. He sees the need for rehabilitation and revival of the cinema spirit.
Prof. Abraham believed that even though cinema attendance had dipped the world over, “nothing can replace the cinema experience and there is nothing like letting go”.
“Nothing can match the experience in the cinema house, the environment, etc,” he emphasised.
He said cinemas played a critical role in development as outlets for distribution and exhibition and created opportunities for film producers to improve themselves and reach larger audiences.
He gave the example of how the renowned film maker, Kwaw Ansah, first premieres his films at the theatre before making them available on CDs for sale.
The rector said cinemas had to be revived and that the government could be a source of help in raising funds, since the revival would be capital intensive, before they were privatised.
He thought there should be at least regional cinemas to provide the entertainment they used to.
Prof. Abraham encouraged private entrepreneurs to invest in the cinema, since it was still a very viable business.
Ghanaians still appreciated good films, as Kwaw Ansah’s films at the National Theatre had always shown, he said.
On the contrary, Nanabanyin Dadson, an arts writer and Editor of Graphic Showbiz, thinks that cinema, as we knew it, is dead and can never make a comeback.
He answered the question from two perspectives, change in attitude and technology.
He said Ghana had never been a strong cinema country like its neighbour Burkina Faso and was never able to establish a strong cinema tradition.
According to him, the production of films did not start in Ghana till the British introduced it in 1940 and that era saw the terminology “Aban Cine”, meaning Government Cinema, because films were used by the Information Services for propaganda .
He recalled films such as ‘Theresa’ on health and ‘Mr Mensah Builds a house’ which sought to promote savings.
Nanabanyin maintained that technology had come with easier and cheaper ways of acquiring, showing and watching films.
“We are able to entertain ourselves without going to the cinema,” he explained.
“With home theatres, which you can watch in more comfort with even a towel around your waist, who would want to dress up and head for the cinema? Videos and CDs killed the temporary upsurge in the cinema because we are mainly consumers,” he explained.
Nanabanyin believes that the film industry should go ahead with home videos in mind because the days of cinema are gone forever.
To get an idea about how the major cinema in Accra, Silverbird, is doing, I spoke to Mr Kweku Yankson, the Marketing Manager, who said Silverbird was doing great business and that all its halls which could seat 1,500 and showed four times in a day were often filled at the weekends.
He said cinema was still very relevant today for entertainment and business.
The government also seems to have concerns over our dead cinemas. The Minister of Information, Mr Fritz Baffour, said in a chat that the government knew the importance of promoting cinema in the country and was engaged in some talks with GAMA Films to see how best to revive cinemas.
I still crave for the day when I, in the company of friends, would visit one of these cinema houses as we used to do in the days of old. The cinema complemented our night life as a people and its demise will make us poorer as a fun loving people.
Over to you, Government and all stakeholders.
• Writer’s e-mail:
aamakai@hotmail.com