The regional secretary of the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers, Mariama Camara, has called on the Liberian Government to make an allotment in the national budget for the country’s film and movie industry because cinematography serves as a medium of education, reconciliation, cultural exposure as well as entertainment for citizens.

She said a national fund for cinematography will greatly impact on the industry, by improving the quality of production, while also providing jobs for hundreds of Liberians serving at various levels of the industry.

She spoke to the Liberia News Agency recently at the end of a three-day visit as guest of the Liberia Movie Union.

She lamented the current status of Liberia’s movie industry which, she noted, was amongst the first on the African continent to produce films, but now lags behind the rest of the others on the continent.

Camara, a Guinean, who was in Liberia to mobilize and organize film makers, however, lauded the establishment of the Liberia Movie Union; describing it as a move that helps to make improvement in the industry a lot easier.

She also emphasized the need for the establishment of a school that will attract the country’s youths to study the production of movies.

“We need to develop the political will through a legislation that will protect Liberia’s productions, which will serve as a way of securing the continuity of the entity and one that will also be a factor that will move people towards the direction of being a filmmaker,” she noted.

While in the country she met with the Assistant Minister for Culture, Madam Louise Macmillan and the Director of Copyright, Ernest G.B. Bruce, during which they discussed issues relative to the Liberian movie industry.

Liberia News Agency