Ghanaian posters offer more than movie magic

  UCLA Fowler Museum Hand-painted movie posters from Ghana
are on display at the Fowler museum through July 29.

By Michael Rosen-Molina
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

It’s hard to dislike a movie with a title like
“Ninja Vampire Ninja Busters.”

It’s especially hard when it’s advertised with a
garish poster full of monsters and magicians spurting blood. But
American Ghanaian movie posters like this one won’t be seen
outside theaters any time soon. From now through July 29, patrons
can see them at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History in a new
exhibit, “Death-Stalking, Sleep-Walking Ninja Barbarian
Terminators: Movie Posters from Ghana.”

According to the museum, in the 1980s, community video clubs and
mobile cinemas brought the magic of the movies, previously only
available to the wealthy urban elite, to the rural population in
Ghana. With the traditional Ghanaian dish of kebab and fufu instead
of popcorn and soda, patrons could thrill in the on-screen antics
of American, Indian, Hong Kong and African cinema.

Naturally, theater owners had to publicize their product. Using
recycled cotton flour sacks as canvasses, hired artists could
produce movie posters quickly and cheaply.

Although Ghana has its share of comedies and dramas, its horror
and fantasy movie posters are what really grab attention. The
exhibit demonstrates how these films give poster artists a chance
to exercise their imagination and show how they savored the
opportunity.

Unlike American posters, Ghanaian movie marquees don’t
always faithfully depict the film.

For example, “Hellraiser” was an American horror
movie that featured Pinhead, a grotesque demon whose head was
studded with rusty nails. The Ghanaian artist apparently feared
that not even this image was lurid enough to draw in the crowds. In
his vision, a giant Pinhead looms above the city skyline,
Godzilla-style, messily devouring a helpless victim.

Fountains of blood seem to be a recurring theme in Ghanaian
poster art. The poster for the relatively banal thriller
“Sleepwalkers” depicts a savage cat-woman creature
under attack by a swarm of cats. With her clothes shredded and skin
bloodied, the fanciful poster gives audiences a bigger scare than
the movie itself.

According to the accompanying plaque at the exhibit, poster
artists rarely watched the movies before starting a painting.
Instead they relied on the accompanying tape jacket and hearsay of
friends for inspiration.

A “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” poster, for
instance, is completely off the mark. Featured is a bizarre
pig-like mutant, clad in a loincloth and brandishing a battle ax. A
rather subdued looking turtle cowers in the corner, barely
noticeable.

Another poster, made for the film “Terminator”
features a stoic Arnold Schwarzenegger standing above the flaming
wreckage of an army jeep, clutching a hulking firearm.
Schwarzenegger’s arms should bulge with muscles, but the
artist had some difficulty recreating his famous physique. Instead,
his arms appear laced with varicose veins.

“Wicked and wild! See the boy!” crows the
enthusiastic tagline.

Few of the poster artists display a firm grasp of anatomy and
viewers will notice more than a few mismatched limbs and crossed
eyes. Even so, the enthusiasm with which they tackle their subjects
more than makes up for this deficiency.

Many of the movies ““ including “Death Stalker”
and the above mentioned “Ninja Vampire Busters” ““
might not be familiar to U.S. audiences, but old stand-bys like
“Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Robocop” are
sure to rouse some nostalgia.

An advertisement for “The Witches” is one of the few
that remains relatively faithful to the actual movie, although it
does break from reality by including an otherwise normal mouse that
wears pants.

“Death-Stalking, Sleep-Walking Barbarian Ninja
Terminators” showcases a marketing style so alien from the
United States that it’s hard to know how to react. Its
explicit subject matter means that this is one of the few museum
exhibits that concerned parents might want to investigate before
bringing their children.

Common wisdom says that violence sells and Ghanaian artists have
obviously taken this advice to heart. Their posters, full of
drooling monsters and dismembered limbs, elicit a much more
visceral reaction than do the refined explosions and bloodless
mayhem of United States cinema. They dare to depict the carnage
that Hollywood, shackled by vague notions of propriety, refuses to
touch. For all their gore, gut and artistic liberties, Ghanaian
posters have a refreshing honesty about them sadly lacking in their
U.S. counterparts.

MUSEUM: “Death-Stalking, Sleep-Walking
Barbarian Ninja Terminators: Movie Posters from Ghana” is now
on display at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History. For more
information, contact the Fowler at (310) 825-4361.