Ghanaian filmmaker Nana Asihene has faced challenges in producing a documentary about Ghanaian music.
In a recent Facebook post, Nana revealed that he had to halt the development of the documentary because some of the music practitioners he approached wanted to be paid before contributing to the project.
“We paused development on a documentary about Ghanaian Music because the music practitioners were not willing to collaborate. And others were asking for money from us, the people who were going to bring attention to them,” he wrote.
This setback has led Nana to consider using foreign sports personalities in a similar project about football, as he is encountering the same hurdles in that industry.
Despite the challenges, Nana Asihene remains determined to tell the story of the “selfish” and “myopic” nature of Ghanaians.
In response to Nana’s post, fellow filmmaker and music video director David Nicole-Dey shared his own experience of investing over 2 million Ghana cedis in producing shows and music documentaries, only to have his investment go to waste due to the attitudes of Ghanaians and Africans towards such projects.
The issue of documenting the Ghanaian story has been a concern for many in the cultural and creative industries.
