African movies portray women as weak and submissive – Shirley Frimpong

sQuashie

September 7, 2015 4:37 PM

In the August 04, 2015 issue of Variety, the producer and CEO of Sparrow Productions, Shirley Frimpong Manso was highlighted as the queen of Ghanaian cinema.

Shirley Frimpong-Manso

Award-winning filmmaker, Shirley Frimpong Manso was recently featured in the August edition of Variety, a US lifestyle magazine.

In the the producer and CEO of Sparrow Productions was highlighted as the queen of Ghanaian cinema. She was heralded as a helmer inspiring upcoming female filmmakers.

Shirley spoke about the way African cinema used to portray women when she was growing up. According to her, comparing the African movies then to the ones from Hollywood, the women were portrayed as less striking than their counterparts.

However, she throws more light on her immediate surroundings and how they contrasted with the image seen on-screen. According to her the women as portrayed in African movies were nothing like the women she saw around her.

“I grew up in a totally different environment,” says the 38-year-old filmmaker, who explains that she was raised in a household run by “strong African women.”

When Frimpong-Manso finally embarked on a career in cinema, she thought about how those portrayals were affecting young Ghanaian viewers, and made herself a promise. “It’s about time we change that image of the (African) woman,” she says.

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sQuashie