SAVE THE REX CINEMA- SEE HOW AKOSUA ADOMA OWUSU IS CHARTING COURSE

I chanced on a post on my twitter timeline yesterday about an exciting initiative by filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu. Her short film, Kweku Ananse swept top honours at the 2013 African Movie Academy Awards Short Movie Category. (You can goggle the movie or her to find out more)

Her initiative, Damn The Man, Save The REX is about raising funds to help refurbish the REX Cinema, Ghana’s oldest cinema house located near Tema Station into an alternative creative space for arts, music and film as the original plan was. She’s raising an amount of $8,000 to finance this initiative.

 Old REX Cinema in Accra

 

The cinema culture in Ghana was at its flourishing best during post independence days. The first president, Kwame Nkrumah realized that the arts could be a vehicle to disseminate and promote the concept of African personality, heritage and culture. So he ensured the establishment of the GAMA Films (a movie production house), built Rex Cinema and National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI).

Later other businessmen, both local and foreigners (Syrians, Lebanese and Indians) set up cinema houses across the country. Opera Square, Roxy, Palladium, Sid Theatre, Osu Regal, Orion, Dunia and Rex Cinemas were in full bloom.

 Present day REX Cinema

 

Our parents recount with nostalgia  that era when these cinemas showed very interesting movie flicks, mostly Chinese and Indian movies, and how some of them run from school just to go watch movies in the afternoons. The cinemas run 7 days a week showing the latest movies in town.

However, the nightlife of the 60s to early 80s was brought to a halt thanks to the numerous military interregnums and curfews that blighted the country’s political and socio-economic progress. Curfews made it impossible for people to enjoy their evenings beyond the walls of their homes.

This signaled the death of the cinema experience and live band music and diminishing returns in profits for owners. 

The once vibrant cinema centres, after Ghana returned to ‘civilization’ were sold to charismatic churches , with some converted into warehouses and shops (The Opera Square is now a wholesale point for local movies).  Others lost their luster to the vagaries of the weather. They are now in a state of dereliction. Sadly.

It is in this vein that Akosua Adoma’s initiative Damn The Man, Safe The REX must be applauded. This is the first attempt at saving some of the iconic cultural landmarks the country has lost and continues to lose. Her vision is to turn REX Cinema’ into a creative space for art, music and film - where the next generation of Ghanaian filmmakers and artists can showcase their work’’.

It will be a tough initiative but not insurmountable. All of us must support, lend a hand.

Visit http://goo.gl/9rQlyb and find out more about the initiative Damn The Man, Save The Rex.