Ghanaian Movie Posters

November 3, 2011

Various African Movie Posters (Ghanaian
)

Oil on recycled grain sacks

Gift: Jay & Helen Lavely

These large movie posters, painted with acrylic on recycled grain sacks, are original African movie posters from Ghana.

In the 1980’s, the video camera was brought to Africa and homegrown movies became a popular business. Dramatic promotional posters were hand-painted to raise awareness about movie showings in makeshift, mobile cinemas. These traveling cinemas were simply equipped with a television and sometimes a generator to show movies in areas where there was not electricity. Moving from village to village, movies were introduced throughout western Africa.

Originally not intended to be objects of fine art, these posters were folded, rolled up and displayed outside, inheriting damages such as cracking and ripping.

The Escalette Collection at Chapman University was gifted over sixty of these unique posters from Jay and Helen Lavely and Mace Neufield, respectively.