Movies And The Ghanaian Audience....

There was a time when, if you wanted to watch a movie, the only place you could go to was the local cinema or those video shed that showed movies for token fees. Then came video, which meant that you could record your favorite movies from your television and watch them time and time again, until the tape wore out. Buying the movies on video cassettes also meant that you could watch many films anytime you felt like it.

Then, with the advent of advanced technology came Cable TV, DVDs and the Internet. Now, looking at the Ghanaian scene, one can clearly see the popularity of movies in the country. You find people selling movies everywhere in the metropolitan capital Accra; from video shops to small stalls and kiosks and, in traffic (which I consider to be a risky purchase by the way ;-) . There are also posh cinemas like Silverbird who show mostly foreign movies and premiere a few Ghanaian and Nigerian movies.

And of course, those who can't afford to spend huge monies on cinema houses also exchange movies with friends who spend a few hours at the cafe and are able to download about 5-10 movies at the end of the day; depending on the connection speed.

Yes, we can say without a doubt that movies are popular in Ghana. So why then, do we always hear news stories indicating that the Ghanaian movie industry is in crisis? Why are there always censorship issues when there is supposed to be a Censorship Board?

People always complain about the sex scenes and nudity in our movies these days. As I was having an argument with a few friends last night, I asked them this question: what prompts the producers to make certain types of movies? The answer is simple.... its the audience.

So I decided then to conduct a survey to find out about the viewing preferences of the Ghanaian movie audience and see if we can all find out what majority of Ghanaians want to see in a movie that they choose to watch.

Here is the link to the survey so, Please Click to tell me your movie preferences. Please.....

I would be grateful if you could answer these few questions......

Cheers...