I was denied funding for one of my films because my lead actor was black - Leila Djansi

Ghanaian filmmaker based in the United States of America, Leila Djansi, has said in an interview with Citi TV that she once presented a proposal on one of her films to an investor for funding but unfortunately, she was denied the request.

According to her, when she sent the proposal, she was told that she could only have the money if she changed the lead character.

“Before COVID I was packaging a film and I had spoken to a couple of investors and I went to the investor who would have [financed the film], and she said ‘your lead is black.’

“So my attorney is also like my dad and I called him and said ‘oh they said my lead is black’. And I think that is the point he asked me, ‘would you consider changing the race of your lead? I thought about it and I thought about it. I think I spoke to a couple of other friends about it, but it didn’t feel right, so of course, I didn’t get the funding for the film because my lead actor was black, and my lead is gonna stay black. Because the story is about a black woman,” she added.

Leila added that during their meetings, they wanted her to make her white husband assume the lead role other than his black wife.

“There was a meeting that we took where they didn’t want to say it, but they were like, ‘what if the husband did this. So pretty much they were telling me that the [white] husband should have been the lead and then the black woman goes back down. I was not having it,” she said.

“Yea, I didn’t get the film financed but when it was time for me to get it financed it will get financed though. I’m not worried about that I see how you would be forced to make compromises,” the award-winning filmmaker further noted.

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She made this revelation to Nana Tuffour and Apiorkor on Citi TV’s Breakfast Daily when her opinion was sought on how some creatives compromise their virtues for international breakthroughs.

The CEO of Turning Point Pictures has won several awards including WorldFest Platinum Award, African Movie Academy Awards, BAFTA/LA Pan African Film Festival Choice Award, and San Diego Black Film Festival award, among others.

She has produced films such as ‘Grass Between My Lips’, ‘The Sisterhood’, ‘Like Cotten Twines’, ‘Ties that Bind’, among others.