Movie producer, Socrate Safo has urged his colleagues to produce movies that give hope to their audience instead of focusing on the fun aspect.
In an interview with GhanaWeb, Mr Safo stated that “Movies are not just made for entertainment but to also educate and to inform so whatever we do in movies, it is up to us to give hope to people. Somebody who may commit suicide is somebody who has lost hope”.
He furthered that movie producers must make sure their products are referred to as a source of motivation. This, when adhered to, Mr Safo argued, will in a way help persons who are depressed.
“Whatever movie I do, I try to give hope to the audience because you can’t solve all problems in the country but at least, whatever you do should be something to motivate people to use your movie as a solution or an example," the renowned filmmaker, known for producing 'Hot Fork' mentioned.
He stated that it is rather unfortunate people put fixation on movie titles instead of the content.
Using his most popular movie as a case study, he said: “If you watch 'Hot Fork', it talks about someone who was accused of something that she didn’t do. She was in cells and she could have done anything to herself but at the end of the day, she had hope and this is a typical example".
"Unfortunately, people don’t look at that side of the movie, they are only excited about the title but they are not looking at the content".
According to him, he has a number of productions about depression. Aside from 'Hot Fork', he mentioned 'God is Wicked', 'Sexy Angel'.
His comments came on the back of the observation of the World Suicide Prevention Day. It is commemorated worldwide on September 9 each year.
Movie producer, Socrate Safo