A giant snake coils around a skyscraper. A man with three heads fires guns in every direction. A woman in a red dress screams as flames burst behind her. These scenes appeared on hand-painted posters that advertised film screenings in Ghana in the 1980s and 1990s. Often painted on opened-up flour sacks, the posters were made quickly to draw crowds to video shows. Today they hang in galleries and sell for high prices abroad.
Video clubs and flour sacks
In the 1980s, as VCRs and generators became available, entrepreneurs in Ghana began travelling from town to town with a television, a video player and a stack of tapes. They screened films in halls and open spaces, charging a small entry fee. To attract audiences, the operators needed eye-catching advertisements. They commissioned local sign painters and artists to produce large posters showing scenes from the films.
Many posters were painted on flour sacks, sewn together and stretched. The material was cheap, light and easy to roll up and carry from town to town.
Imagination and the artists
Artists often had not seen the films they were advertising. They worked from a title, a brief description or a video cover, and let their imaginations run wild. The results were often more dramatic than the films themselves. The posters advertised action films from Hollywood, kung fu films from Hong Kong, Indian films and, later, Ghanaian and Nigerian productions.
Many painters worked in sign-painting workshops in Accra, Kumasi and other towns. Some developed recognisable styles and became known to collectors by name. In the 1990s, foreign collectors and dealers began buying the posters. Exhibitions in the United States and Europe introduced them to new audiences, and prices rose.
A new market and the end of an era
As demand grew, some artists began painting posters directly for collectors, including posters for films that never existed. With the spread of television, DVDs and cinemas, the video clubs declined, and so did the need for posters. The posters used bright colours, dramatic violence and exaggerated bodies, often adding monsters or blood that never appeared on screen.
The posters were painted to sell a single night’s screening in a village hall. Many of them now outlive the films they advertised, and most of those films were never as exciting as the posters promised.
