Ghana Goodness: Africa's Wild & Wacky Poster Variants Of American Films
In the late 80s, mobile cinema businesses were blowing up in the Republic of Ghana, a country located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. Usually consisting of a diesel generator hooked up to a VCR and TV/projector that was loaded onto a truck, these traveling cinemas would venture all over Africa, bringing the wonders of cinema to regions that didn’t even have running water or electricity.
To earn buzz and attract viewers, they did what any cinema would do: they advertised. However, due to licensing and printing costs, these African theaters didn’t have access to the original posters or have the means of printing an alternative. As a result, they tasked local artists with hand painting posters for the films they’d be screening, and many of them had no frame of reference for the films they were drawing. So, a lot of artists let their imagination run wild, adding scenes and characters that didn’t even exist in the original films. Some are surprisingly accurate — but this post isn’t about those posters.
As you can imagine, these artist renderings are often bizarre and hilarious. They’re generally filled with a lot of gore and nudity (and other WTF aspects) in an attempt to gather a decent crowd. These posters, which are often 55-70 inches tall (they used flour sacks as canvas) and were one of a kind, have made big waves in the art and film world, with early originals catching a high price from collectors.
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!