Ghanaian movie industry retrogressing – George Williams

• Posted on September 2, 2015September 2, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Veteran Ghanaian actor George Williams, says the Ghanaian movie industry is rather retrogressing contrary to the notion that it is growing.

Mr. Williams’ view, which is shared by many other veteran actors and actresses, was echoed in an interview on TV3.

The man, affectionately referred to as Mr. Addison following his role in the popular 90s series, Ultimate Paradise, is particularly irked by what he calls extreme emphasis on ‘juju’, witchcraft or superstition which has become the major theme for most locally produced films in recent years.

“I see it to be quite honest as debauchery. That is what it is. The fact of it is that they like to make juju films and that sort of thing.

The fact is that we are retrogressing. We are going back to the stage where they had movies and not talkies. The movies came; there was no dialogue; it was that time of Charlie Chaplain and that is where this thing is going into now because we have a whole lot of juju films and the likes which are as far as am concerned diabolical. They are not worth talking about” he noted.

Aptly referred to as the grandfather of the screen in Ghana, he is one of the known faces to reckon with since the inception of the Ghanaian Movie Industry.

Still cheerful and fit at age 86, Uncle George started his career in 1952 with stage acting and plays.

He later hit the screens with his first lead role in the movie Genesis Chapter X a few years later.

Perhaps his biggest breakthrough was when he played Mr. Addison in the popular 90s TV series Ultimate Paradise.

Whiles many think the movie industry has seen a growth; Uncle George holds a different opinion.

“You got to learn how to write script to start with; you got to learn how to act and you got to learn speech and do all those things. You cannot runway from all those things and say you are doing a movie. That is debauchery. I have had the experience with people who unfortunately have not been adequately schooled in the processes of making a film and they are the people directing films because they have a few coins in their pocket. I have found that it is impossible working with 90/95% of those people. What you see is shameful,” he noted.

He is advising those seeking to achieve excellence in the movie industry to seek academic and practical knowledge.

“You go to school and that’s where you start from. And then you go through apprenticeship and keep learning because life itself is a lesson. However, the fact simply is that, I went through the mill and I think that anyone who wants to go anywhere should go through the mill. You just can’t do it anyway else” he emphasized.

-citifm