Thursday, 28 March

Filmmaking: China seeks Ghana cooperation

News
The government of China is relishing opportunities to explore cooperation with Ghana in avenues related to the arts and entertainment sector.

China is looking forward to partnering other developing countries in Africa to boost the entertainment sector in those countries to better-tell the story of other developing countries across the globe.

Speaking at a training workshop for selected media and documentary filmmaking professionals from developing countries in Beijing, China, Professor Jin Haina, a Senior Lecturer at the Communication University of China, indicated that developing countries could make great strides in the entertainment sector by exploring modern documentary filmmaking developments.

She disclosed that China produces about 52 films yearly and rakes in an annual revenue of over $1 billion from a single film, urging that it could also be the story of African countries should there be a collaboration and sharing of ideas.

Professor Haina added that with the availability of dubbing and sub-titling methods, African countries and China could exchange television film series to bridge cultural differences and share a common goal of attaining domestic and international development through entertainment.

For his part, the Deputy Director for Film and TV Dubbing Services at the China Radio International (CRI), Mr Meng Yi, emphasised that China would be in the position to cooperate with both state-run and private media in African countries to provide documentary film products for free broadcasting or in a cooperative way.

He contended that translation has been the most difficult part in the efforts to localise documentary film content for other countries since that has to do with translating meanings according to local cultural structures.

Mr Yi, however, assured that the CRI Radio and TV Translation Centre of China has in place assistance avenues that are ready to train potential translators from African countries to easily translate the Chinese series or documentary films into their respective local languages for easy understanding.

About 40 media and documentary filmmaking professionals from developing countries have been selected by the Chinese government to participate in a three-week training programme at China’s Research and Training Institute for National Radio and TV Administration in Beijing.

Four of the participants are Ghanaians. They include Class Media Group’s Eastern Regional Correspondent, McAnthony Dagyenga; the Tema Regional Correspondent of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Mr Michael Dewornu; the Central Regional Correspondent of Peace FM, Jane Sally Ngissa; and Atinka Media Village’s Isaac Nuamah Yeboah.

Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3FM/McAnthony Dagyenga, Beijing, China

Source: Emmanuel Mensah