Film production: Ghanaian-American film-maker narrates her challenges as a female producer

Ghanaian-American film director, Kuukua Eshun has shared some challenges preventing women to excel in the film production industry.

The film director in an interview on TV3’s Ladies Circle said most men have issues with women leading production roles in the movie industry.

Kuukua Eshun while citing her experience recalled a time when some cinematographers she was on set with held a meeting behind her back and decided to take some decision without her consent as the boss.

“The challenge is that I’m a new thing for most people often times I’m working with men who are older than me and a hundred people for a production and 80 per cent or 90 percent are men and older than me and that’s hard.

“I’ve had a production where the men will literally go out and go and have meetings like the cinematographers they bound together and had a meeting without me and wanted to make some technical decisions.

“I was like you are on the set because I hired you…afterwards I called the cinematographers and told them I don’t like what that was. I don’t think you are a bad person but I think that you have to be more aware. I know that you are used to working with men but I am here now and let’s adjust,” she narrated.

Responding to how she deals with some men who try to override her, she said “I am a very confident woman and a very dominant person and very solid in what I want so I will let them now. I don’t think I would have to tap into masculine energy but I think I will tap into my feminine boss energy and that’s good enough to go.”

Commenting on what can be done to excel the movie industry, Kuukua called for a united front from all creatives in the industry.

“I think that the idea of exposure and community building and uniting and coming together its powerful but if we don’t first of all have to recognise what we have as creative people on the continent in Ghana and believe in what we have.”