In Ghana during the 1980s and 1990s, hand-painted movie posters featuring exaggerated and sometimes surreal imagery were a vibrant part of the local cinema culture. These posters promoted Hollywood films to audiences across the country, often depicting scenes that diverged wildly from the original movies. They were created primarily to attract attention and boost ticket sales for traveling video clubs—mobile cinemas made up of trucks showing VHS tapes in towns and villages.
This unique poster art, characterized by its bold and improvisational style, emerged amid a scarcity of conventional movie theaters in West Africa at the time. The artists behind the posters often had not seen the films they illustrated, leading to fantastical and sometimes violent reinterpretations of well-known titles. Examples include portrayals such as a humanoid shark from "Jaws" wielding a severed head, or a menacing Kermit the Frog armed with guns.
Although this form of poster art declined with the advent of modern cinemas and digital distribution, it has found renewed interest through efforts led by the Deadly Prey Gallery, co-founded 15 years ago by Brian Chankin, a former Chicago video store owner, and Robert Kofi, a Ghanaian businessman. The gallery not only preserves vintage posters but also commissions new works from the original generation of artists, maintaining the tradition’s distinctive aesthetic.
Recently, Deadly Prey showcased an exhibition at the Selva gallery in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, featuring prints that included imaginative Ghanaian interpretations of films like "Free Willy" and "The Warriors." Visitors browsed through bins filled with the posters, drawn by their vivid and often startling depictions. Film critic Tolu Owolabi expressed appreciation for the posters’ creative unpredictability, noting how they reflect a resourceful and guerrilla approach to African cinema. Olu Campbell, a policy researcher, highlighted the posters’ cultural significance, emphasizing how they provided entertainment in an era without formal cinema chains in West Africa.
Chankin, managing Deadly Prey from Chicago, oversees the care of rare and valuable pieces, some dating back decades and priced in the thousands of dollars. Both founders aim to one day establish a museum in Ghana to honor the art form’s heritage.
Kofi, who grew up in the coastal town of Winneba and worked for a video club as a boy, took an active role in preserving the posters as their prominence waned. Through his connections with artists like Leonardo, Mr. Nana, and Heavy J, he has maintained the tradition, facilitating new commissions for films ranging from cult classics to contemporary titles. Kofi also runs a gallery presence in Ghana catering to tourists.
As the exhibition at Selva concluded, long-time film enthusiasts reflected on the posters’ enduring impact. Aaron Hamel, a co-founder of Williamsburg’s Night Owl Video, noted that beyond their artistic and collectible appeal, these posters represent an inventive form of movie marketing that sparked imagination and curiosity among audiences—sometimes in ways far removed from the films themselves.