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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Ghana Movie Posters

Just stumbled upon these gems (some possibly from the book Extreme Canvas: Movie Poster Paintings from Ghana and Ghanavision) and figured I'd share...
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In the 1980s video cassette technology made it possible for “mobile cinema” operators in Ghana to travel from town to town and village to village creating temporary cinemas. The touring film group would create a theatre by hooking up a TV and VCR onto a portable generator and playing the films for the people to see. In order to promote these showings, artists were hired to paint large posters of the films (usually on used canvas flour sacks). The artists were given the artistic freedom to paint the posters as they desired - often adding elements that weren’t in the actual films, or without even having seen the movies. When the posters were finished they were rolled up and taken on the road (note the heavy damages). The “mobile cinema” began to decline in the mid-nineties due to greater availability of television and video; as a result the painted film posters were substituted for less interesting/artistic posters produced on photocopied paper. (Author: Assemblyman-eph)


Alien (1979; Ridley Scott)
Looks inspired by the American ad art for Alien: Resurrection.

Child's Play (1988; Tom Holland)

Eaten Alive (1980; Umberto Lenzi)

Evil Dead II (1987; Sam Raimi)

The First Power (1990; Robert Resnikoff)

Not sure what entry this is, but clearly influenced by Part III's poster.

Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood (1988; John Carl Buechler)

Hell Serpent: Zuma II (1987; Ben Yalung)

Night of the Demons (1987; Kevin S. Tenney)
May have been used for the 1994 sequel instead, despite title.

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986; Brian Gibson)

Re-Animator (1985; Stuart Gordon)

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988; Wes Craven)

Spirits (1990; Fred Olen Ray)

The Hidden (1987; Jack Sholder)

The Kiss (1988; Pen Densham)

The Return of Swamp Thing (1989; Jim Wynorski)
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There are many more where these came from, but they're either for movies too recent to be covered here or films whose titles I'm unfamiliar with. Undoubtedly, films were retitled there, but I haven't been able to match some of the art with the movies. If I can find additional information to help match up the other posters, I'll add them on here.
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2 comments:

p123 said...

hi.. interested in ghanaian posters of old indian movies such as sholay, etc...

Cultcinema.net said...

wow, what cool stuff. great find!

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