Controversial movie producer, Socrates Safo, says he fully agrees with Michael Kweku Ola, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) who recently stated that some of the association’s members would start producing and promoting pornographic films if rules concerning the business are not properly enforced.
The FIPAG PRO was criticising the government-appointed outfit responsible for classifying films in this country.“I support Ola because he is on point. I agree that we should promote pornography in Ghana. All that he is saying boils down to the inactive Classification Board that looks on unconcerned as a whole lot of movies on the Ghanaian market, including pornographic movies, get shown without classification’’ Safo, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Movie Africa Productions, told Showbiz last Tuesday.
He added that it was another example of the Classification Board not doing its work that made him call for the arrest of investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
“I don’t have anything against Anas. I was talking about the inactive board we have. The law clearly states that all cinematography works, whether for investigations or not, must go through the Board but that is not being done.
“The Board is so inactive that I think it should be independent. The government must put it into private hands. If the Board is not living up to expectation, then we the movie producers will go and shoot porn movies,’’ Safo stated.
Another well-known movie producer, Ahmed Banda, popularly known as Bandex, however, disagreed with Safo. He told Showbiz that “those who think it is a money-making venture can go on and shoot porn movies. As for me, I’m not ready to go in that direction. I will shoot a movie that I can watch with my family, a movie I can watch with my mother.
Bandex said though Ola is the association’s PRO, members were not obliged to do what he says.
“I understand him saying that the Classification Board is not doing well for the movie industry but I won’t be part of what he is saying,’’ Bandex stated.
Award winning actor, John Dumelo also said he believed it was a criminal offence to shoot and distribute porn movies in Ghana.
“I’m sure there’s a law in this country that says it is wrong to produce and distribute porn movies here. So anyone who produces and distributes such material is actually breaking the law. I don’t think porn films should be produced in Ghana. It’s unheard of. It’s just wrong,’’ the star of almost 150 movies said.
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