Unfortunate rumors being peddled by respected Actress Akofa Asiedu against the writer, director and co-producer of the unrivaled movie I sing of a well have been vehemently refuted by representatives of the African Movie Academy Awards.
Akofa Asiedu was heard and seen on television and at the awards show loudly and openly saying the movies director Djansi Leila had written to AMAA to disqualify I sing of a well from the awards.
The information got to Leila Djansi and her attorneys who immediately refuted the allegations calling it malicious. Akofa was legally instructed to refrain from peddling such lies yet she went ahead to repeat the same mistake on the Delay Show on TV3 on the 24th of April 2010. Further investigations to ascertain Ms. Djansi’s innocence led to the AMAA representative in Ghana Judith Oluwole who denied any knowledge of such letter and act. She further stated that, if Akofa claims to have such a letter written by Leila, then Akofa should produce it as AMAA did not involve itself in such matters.
Efforts to reach Akofa on why she is going around peddling such vile rumors among others that she, Akofa single hand-ly financed the film and that Leila took the movie away from her proved futile as her phone went unanswered.
We however managed to get through to the director via email and she again said she never did any such thing. She also intimated that, if she had requested the movie to be pulled out, it would have been pulled out. “I admire the AMAA initiative. Yes, I was not aware the movie was entered and I had to find out on facebook, but that was no reason to pull out the film. I have no idea why Akofa will ridicule herself by going on television to lie. She is too old and mature to be doing that. Moreover, if I have pocketed the movie and she does not have it as she claims, how then did it get to AMAA, how come clips of it are being shown all over TV in Ghana? Other than what’s on back-up drives with the editor and a low rez rough cut in my drop-box, I do not even have a copy of the film. ” She said.
Crew members of I sing of a well are not singing Akofas’ praises either as none of them were informed by Akofa, the proclaimed producer of the movies wins. She is only seen on TV talking about how she made a great movie. Some crew members also confirmed that in actual fact, Akofa played no producer role on the film set but always came on set late and was always the first to leave. The award for sound, which we found out rightfully belongs to sound designers Jeffrey Dyal and Czarchus Jones have not been sent to them either but are decorations for Akofa as she hops from one TV station to another proclaiming herself as the alpha and Omega of the landmark film.
Asked whether she is angry at Akofa’s comments on the Delay show on TV3 that she Akofa financed the total 100,000 film, Leila wrote a very long ‘hahahaha, has Akofa seen 100,000 dollars before? Is my fee a part of that 100,000, does that also include how much I spent or is she saying the budget is over 100,000 dollars?, let her make her budget, receipts and cleared checks available for the world to see then or she should act her age and stop telling lies at every turn. ”
In response to Akofa calling her a fool and saying she would rather watch cartoons than think about her, Leila said “oh well, you watch cartoons when you are depressed and or need to amuse yourself so why not. So I guess we all know why she’d want to do that. Cartoons are very good therapy. I do believe she is right that I am a fool because I trusted her. I don’t ever want to talk about this movie again. It’s starting to sound like a broken record. Seriously.”
The multi-talented director seemed to be in very high spirits and we attribute it to the new hit film she is about to make. The Hollywood budget film titled Sinking Sands stars the likes of Jimmy Jean Louis, Ama K Abebrese, Doris Sackitey, Thelma Nwosu and, some other undisclosed Hollywood stars and crew members. The film is to be distributed by Neo Classics films, the Hollywood studio that distributed the Australian Academy Award winning film which starred the Academy Award nominated Toni Collete and Luke Ford, The Black Balloon.
It is sad how both Jackie and Akofa are taking credit by themselves for work done a large group of people. The film industry has become very lucrative and unfortunately, in that regard, many wolves have come in to exploit it. Jackie also went on TV to create an impression that she alone won in the best Actress category abandoning the hard work of Naa Ahorkor and Lydia Forson. The screens are now full of sex and senseless storylines. We managed to sneak a final question to the Director Leila Djansi about her opinion on the amount of nudity appearing in our movies these days.
“If you must shoot sex, please make it tasteful and NECESSARY. The kids who are allowing them to be exploited for pittance, we know they are in it for fame and money. Some people are in the industry for the totally wrong reasons and that is why it is corrupt and that is why our progress is slow. It’s time we boldly call these people out.”
That is why we writers accept all the insult because we know we are calling them out! Congrats to Lydia Forson, Naa Ashorkor, Mabel Germaine, Jeffrey Dyal, Czarchus Jones, Leila Djansi, Best Director Shirley Frimpong Manso (congrats on the baby as well) and the entire cast and crew of the Perfect Picture and I sing of a Well for making Ghana stand tall at the AMAA.
By Joy Della Ocloo and Bode Adewara (writer in training) for nigeriafilms.com
