Ghanaian-American actress and filmmaker Leila Djansi has bitterly lamented the "mediocrity" of the Ghana movie industry.

In her scathing Facebook post, she rebuked players in the local movie industry for their aversion to criticism. 

She noted she was speaking not as an outsider but someone who had "tasted and tested the Ghana film industry since the year 2000" and found it to be "a mirthless joke".

She cited the unfettered unprofessionalism she experienced in Ghana. 

"Try an AD telling you he’s going to sleep for a few minutes in the middle of a shoot. Try a crew demanding you stop filming, bring a TV so they can watch football, and then return to set after the match. Look for what Cary Fukunaga said about working in Ghana. Try wardrobe telling an actor they don’t have an outfit for them because their role is not big enough," she said.

According to Leila, she witnessed waton carelessness on sets in Ghana. She illustrated this by revealing an instance during which the Ayawaso West Wuogon MP John Setor Dumelo, when he was active in film, was nearly stabbed.

"Should I talk about the production designer who passed a real knife to an actor for a stabbing scene? My God. If it wasn’t for divine intervention, Vanessa Williams would have stabbed John Dumelo with a real knife that day. How is this not a joke?"

Leila urged local filmmakers to embrace criticism no matter how harsh it was, looking out for the silver lining. She said this attitude she was advocating had benefitted her greatly.

"A few years ago, a CAA agent told me he couldn’t represent me because my films had no explosions. Ahhhh. Explosions?? Ok. Initially, I was livid. I started making excuses. “Did you give me explosion budget?” But I sat with the criticism. I sat with it, and guess what? My next film, I made sure I not only had explosions. I freaking burned down a house and a human being. I went all out! From the sets to the stars I even shot on anamorphic lenses [praise emoji]. Because what he actually said to me was “go take risks with your storytelling”. I grew up." she recounted.

"If your default is to always accuse people who correct you of hating or envy, you won’t be introspective, and you will not grow," she cautioned.

Leila Djansi, a multiple-award winning filmmaker, emphasised Ghana's movie industry would not progress nor become competitive on the continent or beyond if players therein did not adopt productive attitudes and work ethics. 

Read her entire post below.