Ghanaian movie producer, Peter Sedufia, has bemoaned government’s failure to support members of his team to attend FESPACO in Burkina Faso.
“Keteke” which was selected for the festival was screened at the opening of the festival.
A request to the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Arts to sponsor the trip of some cast and crew as well as send a delegation to support the filmmakers, did not yield results.
He was however able to get the French Embassy to sponsor the producer’s trip, which is him.
In a very long Instagram post, Peter wrote:
“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. 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. Of course, I am here on the ticket of FESPACO; they could only sponsor one person on the team.
Now, here we are, and all the media outlets, including BBC and the audience keep asking why the lead cast are not present. Then, BBC decided to have a phone interview with the lead actress (@lydiaforson) in the link below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p071ywm1
And guess what again?
I’m informed that the Rwandan president is arriving in Ougadougou today to join his people to support the Rwandan film in competition at FESPACO. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting to hear from our sector ministry…”
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By: ghanaweekend.com
