Spike Lee: I didn’t know Ghana had a movie industry

Veteran American actor and filmmaker Spike Lee has stated that he didn’t even know Ghana had a movie industry. He said no one in the industry approached him to talk about the industry, though his presence in Ghana was made public.

During an interview on the Accra-based Asaase Radio Breakfast Show, the “Do The Right Thing” maker said he has not heard of the Ghana film industry and is only aware of the Nigerian own.

“I did not know, I was not aware that there is a thriving film industry in Ghana. I know about Nigeria….the news was publicized that I was coming and no one approached from the film office in Ghana.” He added, “I would love to meet the people in the film industry but no one has come”.

Expressing his bewilderment, he said, “So there’s a film school here and they know Spike Lee is coming, no one reached out and said ‘Spike, can you speak to our students, I would have done it”.

According to him, he would love to speak to the students who are in the film school, the University of Media, Arts and Communication, UniMAC, formerly known as NAFTI.

Spike Lee, born Shelton Jack Lee is a 66-year-old American filmmaker who has worked on some of the top movies in Hollywood. Mr Lee premiered his first independent film in 1983 titled, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. He submitted the film as his master’s degree thesis at the Tisch School of the Arts.

Aside from film-making and acting, he taught a course about film-making in Havard. Later, he taught in the Graduate Film program at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. He has worked on films distributed by global industry players such as Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros and Columbia.