Ghana’s 2008 Elections Documentary Picks Africa’s Best Documentary Award

The 2008 general elections held in Ghana are still getting international attention.

A documentary on Ghana’s elections was one of the creative works that caused a stir at this year’s African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in Nigeria last weakened.

The documentary won this year’s Achievement In Best Documentary Film.

Titled ‘African Election’, it competed with equally good documentaries as ‘Beyond The Deadly Pit’- Rwanda, ‘Dear Mandela’- South Africa, ‘White & Black: Crime & Colour’-Tanzania, ‘The Niger Delta Struggle’- Ghana, ‘There Is Nothing Wrong With My Uncle’- Nigeria and ‘How Much Is Too Much’- Kenya.

Produced and directed by Jarreth Merz, a Swiss-born filmmaker with Ghana-Nigeria linage, the documentary covered events that occurred during Ghana’s last elections.

The beauty of the documentary was the fact that the elections were run three times, with a small constituency- Tain- being the final decider.

Jarreth Merz and Francis Addo of Daily Guide, NEWS-ONE & www.ghanashowbiz.blogspot.com at AMAA Awards 2012

“To be nominated and awarded at the African Academy Awards is prestigious for me. I feel honored because I would never have suspected that with all the hardship that we had, we would be taking this prize. When we started this film, everyone told me it was not going to happen. Everyone said who cares about election in Ghana because there might not be blood. People are always looking for the most terrible things to happen and nothing complex happened. The most progressive things and inspiring things happened and I think the jury and audience proved that they wanted to be inspired. They were tired of a certain look of the past of how the African has been portrayed and betrayed and that we are looking into the future. It is a future where we want to be crossing a finish line with somebody by our side, not alone. You know, the time of winners winning alone is over. We have to win collectively and I think that is why people understand …that is why they gave us the prize,”   Jarreth Merz told NEWS-ONE in exclusive interview in Nigeria.

He said it was difficult for him and his crew to gain the trust of Ghanaian political players. That, he said, was one of the major challenges they had to face. It took them a while to do what they did because people didn’t know them. But at the end, they managed to come out with a good product devoid of any bias.

He said they would tour Ghana with the documentary from August 2012.

“We are bringing the documentary to Ghana. We are planning a tour through Ghana, through the entire country in August, September and October. We are actually dubbing the film into what we call five important languages in Ghana. All the language are all important but our budget is tight so we dubbing the film into Dagbani, Huasa, Ewe, Ga and Akan. We are traveling the country because we think everybody deserves to see this film because it belongs to Ghanaians and my grandmother is a Ghanaian from Kumasi.”

credit: NEWS-ONE