The second edition of the Africa Cinema Summit has commenced, emphasizing the need to rejuvenate cinema culture

A robust cinema network among Africans is being urged as the second Africa Cinema Summit (ACS) gets underway in Accra.

Chief Executive Officer of the National Film Authority (NFA), Juliet Asante, challenged stakeholders in the film industry to tell African stories and not just be spectators, watching the world tell theirs, during her keynote speech at this year’s opening ceremony of the summit, which is taking place on Monday, October 7–10.

“Africans have become spectators throughout time, sitting and listening to other people’s stories while without the resources or access to tell our own effectively, and our cinemas have closed. Now, our children never really get to see themselves on the big screen and never even get to perhaps enter a cinema to witness the magic of a big screen. We are all, including our kids, limited to the small screen and the small-mindedness that goes with it. Over 90% of Africa’s 1.5 billion people have never watched a film on the big screen,” she said.

Ms Asante pointed out that a strong cinema implies a film production will be watched by a meaningful percentage of African audience, adding, “a strong cinema network will mean that a film released in Ghana or Nigeria or Morocco or Angola can reach all of our people.
Some big films in America have the potential to see over 30% of the country’s population. Imagine an African filmmaker reaching even 10% of the continent’s population—that’s over 750 million dollars right there,” the speaker said.

This year’s summit, which is being hosted by Ghana’s National Film Authority (NFA), has as its theme “Is Cinema Relevant in African Communities?”