Ghallywood African Film Village in Accra
Ghanaian filmmaker and CEO of Ghallywood African Film Village, William Awuku Akuffo, has disclosed that his school has not closed down.
According to him, the school has only changed location from Dawa, where it previously operated to its current location in Accra at East Legon.
The film village at Dawa, off the Tema-Aflao road in the Greater Accra Region which sprawls a hush 200 acre land (800 plots), is tagged as one of the biggest film villages on the African continent.
Mr Akuffo, who was reacting to a NEWS-ONE report concerning the alleged closure of the Dawa facility yesterday, explained that he had to move the school to Accra because of “proximity” issues.
“We moved to school to Accra because of proximity. It is quite a distance; so coming to school at Dawa and when students close, coming back to Accra is a problem. Besides it is not everyone who wants to be a boarder and also it is also not everyone who owns a vehicle… most of our clientele are in Accra so that’s why we moved,” he told NEWS-ONE on Monday.
He revealed that he wanted to use the facility there for different a project, therefore, he would not accept claims that he has closed down the film village at Dawa.
“Ghallywood never closed down. It is company and it is existing and it will exist for the rest of my life and even beyond that. When you say Ghallywood and you go to Dawa, it is just the location. It is not the company. We can decide to have Ghallywood in Kumasi. We even have land in Tamale …we can decide to have another Ghallywood in Tamale.”
“So when I heard Ghallywood was closed down I was a bit taken aback because of the headline… and then there pictures of the dilapidated place. If you noticed we have removed some things because we want to renovate for something else which is not the question we are tackling now. So if we have a place and decided to build an estate with it or to do a secondary school with it, how will you call that closed down? If you go there and there was no building there and said oh all the buildings in Ghallywood have been may be been demolished then, at least, you will have some justification. But the main classroom is even there. It is untouched. So if we still want to do Ghallywood in Dawa, we can still go there. It is our property. But for now Ghallywood African Film Village is in East Legon,” he added.
The new Ghallywood facility in Accra is adjacent the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) Yahweh Temple behind the American House at East Legon. It doesn’t occupy a big space as the Dawa one, but it has classrooms for acting, editing, recording studios, among others.