How films were advertised in Ghana: 16 funny posters

An interesting exhibition of advertising posters from Ghana has opened in one of the galleries in London. Here are more than a hundred posters of Hollywood films, hand-painted. And these are not just movie posters, these are original oil paintings two meters high. These posters appeared in public places of various settlements of Ghana, on roadsides, in markets. They encouraged people to visit then-popular mobile video clubs where they showed Hollywood and Indian films.

Mobile video clubs were popular in Ghana from the late 1970s to the early 2000s. They traveled from one village to another and gathered people for shows. No movie posters were attached, so local artists worked for video clubs: they created this roadside art. Judging by some of the posters, not everyone even imagined what was being discussed in the film. Many of the posters were grotesque and terrifying, such posters were drawn intentionally to provide a complete room.

The posters were on the street for a long time: the premieres were first in one village where the poster was, and then the video club moved to another village and took the poster with him. Paper for creating posters did not fit at all, because the posters had to stand on the street for days. So canvas bags from flour were used: they were specially sewn and turned into canvas. Artists painted with oil or acrylic paints, and if you look closely, on the "canvas" you can see the marking of the flour and its weight.