Popular Ghanaian filmmaker Ama K Abebrese has voiced her frustration over the rampant and persistent piracy of local films by Ghanaian television stations, warning that the practice is crippling the country’s already fragile movie industry.
Appearing on UTV’s United Showbiz on Saturday, June 14, Ama shared her own encounter with copyright infringement involving her award-winning film The Burial of Kojo. Despite its official premiere on Netflix on March 31, 2019, she was shocked to discover the film airing without permission on a local TV station just a month later.
“I don’t know where this TV station was. And I remember we hadn’t even been paid by Netflix for the film,” she said. “It was a struggle to make that film. We couldn’t find investors, so we resorted to Kickstarter. Then a TV station showed it without permission. And we actually contacted the TV station, and the person we contacted started playing dumb. He even blocked my number.”
Ama recounted that this wasn’t an isolated incident. During her tenure as Head of Productions at Viasat 1, she oversaw the legal acquisition of screening rights for the Harry Potter films, only to witness rival stations broadcasting the same movies without authorization.
“This is something I’ve been dealing with since 2012. Nothing has been done. People feel like they can do whatever they want because they know someone in power,” the Ghanaian filmmaker lamented.
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Her frustration extended to the general disregard for the arts by decision-makers in the country. She pointed to the systemic neglect of Ghana’s creative sector as a major obstacle to progress.
“I feel like in Ghana, the arts are really not taken seriously. Especially by our lawmakers. They see it as just entertainment,” she added.
Ama stressed that unless piracy is aggressively addressed and copyright laws are properly enforced, local filmmakers will remain discouraged, and the industry will continue to stagnate.
“People say that the Ghanaian movie industry is dead and that it’s not going anywhere. But when people have been investing their own money, not only are you not supporting them, but you’re killing the industry by pirating it. We’re our own worst enemies,” she said.
Ama K Abebrese concluded with a grim but candid observation about the state’s failure to act: “So, until something is done, we will talk about it every two or three months, and they’ll keep doing it.”
