Hand-Painted EZEKUDENE Movie Poster | Authentic African Art

This hand-painted movie poster representing "Ezekudene" captures the essence of the film. The vibrant colors and dynamic illustrations reflect the film's intense and dramatic nature, embodying the unique style of Ghanaian hand-painted movie posters.

Cultural and Artistic Significance

Ghanaian hand-painted movie posters are a rich form of African art born from the need to advertise mobile cinema screenings across Ghana. This tradition showcases the creativity and resourcefulness of local artists who interpret movies onto canvas with bold colors and exaggerated features, making each poster a unique piece of art.

These posters are hand-painted on recycled flour sacks by local artists for the local cinema to promote the movies. This art form began in the 1980s with the advent of video and video cassettes in Ghana. Local operators, equipped with a television, a video player, and sometimes a portable generator, moved from place to place showing their films. To gather as many spectators as possible, they needed large, eye-catching posters.

Talented artists would create these posters using oil paint on used cotton flour sacks sewn together. The artists had the freedom to add and change scenes, making each poster unique as it expressed the artist's vision. Despite their "hard" life—being transported, displayed under harsh weather conditions, and often damaged—these posters are now highly collectible and exhibited in museums worldwide.

By the mid-1990s, the popularity of mobile cinemas declined with the wider availability of television and video in Ghana. The cost of commissioning hand-painted posters became prohibitive, leading to the use of photocopy paper posters to cut costs.