GHANA: Ghana's capital, Accra hosts festival to showcase films with an environmental message

Record ID: 721451

  • Title: GHANA: Ghana's capital, Accra hosts festival to showcase films with an environmental message
  • Date: 13th June 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ATUKWEI OKAI, SECRETARY GENERAL, PAN AFRICAN WRITERS ASSOCIATION (PAWA) SAYING: "A serious and dedicated effort to try to deliver a serious message to society, about the need for society to take care of its future by agreeing to respect our environment." NANA YAW OPOKU DANSO, PRODUCER OF KONKO CAR, WINNER OF FIRST PRIZE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FILM, RECEIVING AWARD AUDIENCE WATCHING AWARDS
  • Embargoed: 28th June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ghana, Ghana
  • Country: Ghana
  • Reuters ID: LVA2FRBJGXJ0VYMIKJJ3G93SQEW8
  • Story Text: Film buffs and environmental activists joined forces on Friday (June 09) for the seventh edition of Accra's green film festival.
    The Environmental Film Festival of Accra (EFFA) was founded to showcase the best of Africa's environmental cinema and give a platform to those fighting to push green issues higher up the agenda.
    The festival, featured at a range of venues across the capital Accra, runs until June 17.
    Speaking at the opening, Atukwei Okai, from the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) said the event was important for the environment.
    "A serious and dedicated effort to try to deliver a serious message to society, about the need for society to take care of its future by agreeing to respect our environment," he said.
    Part of the festival is an award ceremony for the best environmental films of the year.
    This year's first prize went to a film called Konko Car, about a boy who builds a car out of rubbish he finds in his neighbourhood.
    "Everything that you saw in the movie is reality, I mean we are talking about the environment, most of the things we throw out as rubbish can be recycled and be made into so many things, just like the kid went to the rubbish pick up the cans made them into a car he recycle them, its the exception about the movie," said Ana Yaw Opoku Danso, the film's producer.
    The film's makers were awarded 3,000GHS (almost 2,000 US dollars) in prize money.
    Festival organisers also encourage school children and new film makers to use film as a media to promote issues that are important to them.
    Kwesi Owusu, one of the festival's directors said helping young people understand environmental issues is one of the best strategies for ensuring that Ghana's problems with pollution and waste move higher up the political and social agenda.
    "Essentially, educational issues are important particularly educating people about the environment, you know everything happens in the mind, you know and we want to try and influence attitude towards the environment, raise issues and basically help protect our environment," he said.
    The opening also featured a fashion show with all the models wearing clothes made from recycled waste.
    Accra is one of the fastest growing and most polluted cities in Africa. Problems with waste disposal, car fumes, seeping rubbish dumps and overcrowding have plagued the city for decades.
    Meanwhile, Ghana's primary rainforest has been reduced by 90 percent in less than 50 years, destroying large parts of the countryside and contributing to soil erosion and polluted waterways.
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