Elmina, a movie about Oil and Colonialism

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Nana Kwabena Owusu in This & That

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It is always great to discover Ghanaian movies which focus on contemporary Ghanaian issues, amidst the huge numbers that seem like carbon copies of each other. A post on the blog, Mighty African, about an entry on the movies section of Fienipa, a Ghanaian content portal, alerted me about the movie, Elmina. It is about colonialism, greed, hatred, love and betrayal in a small town when oil is discovered. These are deep emotions and themes to be intertwined within one movie, and certainly makes it an exciting prospect.

The movie is a production of Revele Films which has been involved in previous Ghanaian movies like Run Baby Run and also TV hits like Home Sweet Home and Hotel St James. Gleaning from a post on the entertainment website, AmeyawDebrah.com, it is very much a family affair, with the story co-written by John Apea and Emmanuel Apea and produced by Julia Appea. John Apea also stars in the movie, alongside Douglas Fishbone, a renowned artist (and the lead actor) and also features great Ghanaian actors like Kofi Bucknor, Akorfa Asiedu, Ama K. Abebrese, Kojo Dadson and Redeemer Mensah.

An interesting issue raised by the author of the post on Mighty African and also by others in the comments on the post, is the lead character and role being a ‘white man’.

It seems the hero in the movie is a white man? We see him questioning the higher authorities for them making their community members to sell their land. We see him say “We are being cheated by the white people”, while he himself is White. And is he the character called ‘Ato’? Agya wadwo! I hope he doesn’t overshadow the movie, After all, in the trailer, he (Doug Fishbone) is mentioned even before Revele Films. Or is this a Flatbush Films venture whose local partner is Revele Films? Plenty questions.

Personally, I did not find it overly strange that a movie with colonialism as part of its theme, has a major character (in this case, the hero) being white, but the questions are very legitimate, and fortunately there are some answers. The Tate Gallery exhibition note about Elmina clearly shows that this was deliberate, and that pushing the boundaries of audience perception is the main forte of Doug Fishbone as an artist.

Elmina, Fishbone’s new feature-length dramatic film pushes this exploration in a different direction, presenting an unusual experiment in collaboration and co-authorship shot entirely on location in Ghana.

The only artistic intervention is the insertion of Fishbone, a white American artist, as the lead role in an otherwise completely African production. Through this simple gesture of using a racially and culturally incongruous actor, Fishbone tests the viewers’ preconceptions of how we interact with cinema and fiction.

The project continues Fishbone’s investigation into the relativity of perception and understanding, pushing what audiences expect as the acceptable limits of role and representation in film.

The movie made the usual rounds on the PR circuit and has been featured on the One Show and also had John Apea interviewed by Ameyaw Debrah and is set to be premiered in Ghana in December. It is on exhibition at the Tate Gallery, UK and will remain until January 3, 2011.

Ps. There is some back channel discussions to possibly get Elmina shown at Barcamp Takoradi, keep your fingers crossed. We will keep you updated and you can also follow Barcamp Takoradi for updates.

Tags: colonialism, elmina, exhibition, featured_story, film, ghana, lifestyle_featured, movie, oil, revele films

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