Ghanaian Video Tales
A tribute to the syncretism of cinema and the power of imagination, Ghanaian Video Tales introduces the exciting and unique genre of African horror movies – and the filmmakers behind it. Since the early 1990s video technology has deeply changed the African media world. Easy handling and affordable cost of production have enabled filmmakers to tell their own stories for their local audiences. The result has been a growing and highly evocative modern mythology. The documentary draws the portrait of five Ghanaian filmmakers, actors and producers. It presents original clips from some of their most famous movies: from the initial blockbuster “Zinabu” to the snakeman cycle “Diabolo” about a man who transforms his female victims into money vomitting monsters to some of the more recent demonic stories such as “Babina” and “Satan’s Wife”. It includes interviews with the pioneers and protagonists of the scene, everyday observations on set, and follows the way of the films themselves – from production to projection.
Directors
Tobias Wendl
Born in 1957, is an anthropologist and filmmaker. Studies in Munich and Münster PhD 1990, Munich 1992-1993 Postdoc Scholar at the Maison des Sciences de I'Homme (MSH), Paris 1993-1997 Lecturer of Visual Anthropology, University of Munich 1999-2001 Lecturer at the College of Media and Cultural Communication University of Cologne since 2003 Director of Iwalewa House, University of Bayreuth Research focus: geographic: Western and Southern Africa, Afro-America, Caribbean, African Diasporas thematic: Contemporary Arts, Media, Cinema, Religion, Urban and Popular Culture.