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Excerpt:
Demonic serpents; a half-child, half-beast; blood-soaked
heads and arms, removed by machetes - just a few of
the disturbing images of voodoo terror and sci-fi horror
that burst from the canvas of movie posters from Ghana.
These potent paintings are the output of a brief period
of around twenty years, beginning in the mid-1980s.
Cinema-going was long a popular activity in Ghana.
The large towns, particularly the capital, Accra, inherited
magnificent cinemas from the British colonisers, but
over the years, faced with the difficulty of finding
spare parts for their large 35mm projectors, these establishments
closed down one by one.
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As video became more widespread, the void was filled
by a group of entrepreneurs who created small, mobile
film-distribution empires. Armed with videocassettes,
television monitors and portable gas-powered generators,
they brought movies to towns and rural villages. At
the same time, video clubs sprang up, offering Hollywood
B-movies, Asian action films and Nigerian horror movies.
Rooms equipped with televisions and video recorders
became picture houses with wooden benches where films
could be viewed for a modest sum.
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