Ghanaian movie producer, Peter Sedufia, has bemoaned government’s failure to support members of his team to attend the 50th Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso.
His movie,’Keteke’ which was selected for FESPACO, was screened at the opening of the festival.
According to Peter, a request to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to sponsor the trip of some cast and crew as well as send a delegation to support the filmmakers, did not yield results.However, he was able to get the French Embassy to sponsor his trip.
“Back home in my country, Ghana, we sent an official letter to the ministry in charge of our creative industry to inform them of the selection of “#KETEKE” in this prestigious event, and sought for sponsorship to send some of the cast and crew to represent the film just as other countries have done. Guess what? It has been “go and come, go and come”, till we sent a late letter to the French embassy in Ghana and they accepted to sponsor one of the crew “the producer” to the event,” he wrote on Instagram.
He noted that some countries that went to the festival had officials from government in attendance.
“Currently at FESPACO, where it looks like the filmmaking hub of Africa has converged. Most countries whose citizens’ films are in the festival have sent entourage of delegates from their countries to come support their filmmakers in this all important celebration of African cinema. As to how they managed to get their government involved, is another discussion,” he wrote.
Lydia Forson who played a lead role in the ‘Keteke’ movie expressed her disappointment in an interview on the BBC, recounting how she missed out on attending the festival.
She also mentioned lack of support from the government after they had gone through the necessary processes to get funding for the trip.
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By: Kwame Dadzie | citinewsroom.com | Ghana
