Curio: Bootleg Posters from Ghana

Alexa here to share some arts and crafts for your Tuesday. I recently came upon a story about the strange world of bootleg movie posters from Ghana and I've become a little obsessed. In the 80s and early 90s, when VHS tapes from Hong Kong, Bollywood and Hollywood started making their way to Ghana, mobile cinemas were set up to screen films on the fly.  Promotional posters were needed quickly to get people into the theaters but there was a catch: the artists knew little about the films before making the posters. Armed with titles and their own imaginations, the poster artists created versions of these films stuffed with more violence and pulpy thrills than the films themselves.

More false advertising after the jump

The mobile cinemas began to disappear in the 90s when more Ghanaians had their own equipment. But art dealers started buying up the original posters, even commissioning new works form the artists. Jeaurs Oka Afutu is one of these artists, who continues to paint movie posters from his home, imbuing the canvases with his own imaginary elements to make the films less "boring."

Now so much more than false advertising, these are like posterized wish fulfillment.  You can see many more here and start collecting here.

Comments

[craver]

The Spy Who Love Me poster ROTFL

[Sonja]

This is so damn bad.... it's genius.
LMAO Tom Cruise!!!

[denny]

My favorite thing about these (which are all fascinating and great in different ways) is the constant, random misspelling of names and titles. Like how Dracula stars "Anthon Hopkin" and "Reeves". And of course, "The Spy Who Love Me". AMAZING.

[Ty]

I wish American movie posters were this interesting.

[brookesboy]

A killer salmon on the Bond poster! That should spawn sequels.

[Henry]

These are wonderful. I want Cat Woman.

[Jaragon]

These are hysterical- love the giant fish in "The Spy Who Loved Me"- and the Cat Woman poster looks like some freaky horror movie.