By: Adiza Bawa
A Renowned actor, Oscar Provencal is calling for a collective discourse among members of the creative arts industry with the aim of influencing government policies on the industry.
According to him, the processes involved in making the voice of the industry relevant is slow; however, members advocating for it in the long run will enhance policy development and direction. Empowering the industry, he believes, will ensure that duty bearers work for the good of the creative industry. He disclosed that when reviewed, the creative industry has the potential of creating massive employment.
He therefore encouraged duty bearers to do more in bettering the lives of members in the creative space. He was Speaking at the launch of a new titled “The Agency”. Mr. Provencal advised content creators, especially movie makers to have in place better structures in the process of production to enable them compete globally.
He called on corporate bodies especially insurance companies to invest in the Ghanaian Film industry. The actor, who also starred in the movie, recounted his experiences on set, saying this was the toughest production he had worked with.
THE AGENCY movie tells the story of a very powerful government security agency formed to handle the government’s top-secret operations but which gets corrupted under the leadership of a highly connected female government appointee who uses the agency for back-door business dealings, hence, causing the emergence of a group of highly skilled individuals to embark on a self-sanctioned perilous mission to end the corruption and abuse. The main goal of this production is to entertain.
However, the movie also engenders stereotyping in the Ghanaian film industry where lead acting roles are typically reserved for men while lead drama roles are reserved for women. By casting women in lead roles on both sides of the action, The Agency movie boldly proves that Ghana has great female actors who, if empowered with the necessary skills and led by great directors, can take on roles like these and even more challenging ones.
THE AGENCY movie also serves as inspiration for other Ghanaian filmmakers.
Director of the movie, Abu Iddris, said the main goal of the movie production was to entertain its cherished Ghanaian populace.
He said “The ‘Agency’ movie serves as an inspiration for Ghanaian filmmakers. He added that from writing to post-production, the film was made in Ghana with a Ghanaian cast and crew and with a much lesser budget than would typically take to make films of its standard.
He said the movie also defied gender stereotyping in the Ghanaian film industry where lead action roles were typically reserved for men while lead drama roles were solely set aside for women. He noted that the co-production in the Ghanaian movie industry is of great importance.
“In a country where there is constant struggle between law enforcers and criminals and a country where there is a lot of corruption, the storyline is about an organization which recruits the best operatives from the police, army, the Air Force and private organizations to battle threats discretely from the public eye.
The leader of the agency is a corrupt powerful woman who no one dares to cross. But a group of individuals come together to challenge the agency. They consist of the former director of the agency, the female leader of the agency’s opposers, a good Muslim police man, an Imam and a former field operative”, he added.
He noted that, “ this movie had female leads because woman in most movies were given drama roles because we think they are better suited for that. The film was made purely for entertainment and not to discriminate against the police or the army or any security personnel.”
Cine-God Studios, is in partnership with Vascan Studios, and written and executive produced by Amin Ramart of Vascan Studios. Themed, ‘good-over-evil’, the “Agency,” is a Ghanaian blockbuster with hyper-realistic action designed that no or very few, if any, have attempted in Ghana with a completely Ghanaian cast and crew.
Mr. Ramart assured that they would produce more of such movies and called on citizens and corporate institutions to push for the movie to break Ghana’s boundaries.
A cast in the movie and renowned actress, Salma Mumin bemoaned the spate at which Ghanaian movies are not acknowledged especially on Netflix. She added that it’s really bad for business.
Beverly Afaglo lauded the Production team especially the director for keeping them on their toes.
The movie will make its world premiere on October 1, 2022, at the Silverbird Cinemas within the Accra Mall and West hills Mall and all cinemas nationwide.
