Ketruah Davies Ricks, President , LiRovia TV

Over the years Liberians, whether at home or abroad, have come to see the big splash the Nigerian and Ghanaian movies and music have made and continue to make in the world with awe as many are developing a sense of cultural nationalism.

Many Liberians are eager to see Liberian entertainment, especially Liberian movies, to make similar splash on the national stage in Liberia as well as international stage. It is based on this heightened sense of cultural nationalism that some group of passionate supporters of the burgeoning Liberian film industry decided to form the Liberian Film Association of America (LFAA).

Frances Brown, Vice President, LiRovia TV

LFAA is primarily dedicated to bringing together Liberian film makers, video producers, actors and actresses under one roof in order to promote Liberian films and videos in America, west Africa and the rest of the world. Among its goals is to bring Liberian movies to greater quality standard that meets the taste of people everywhere who are interested in African movies which is now a multimillion dollar industry. With quality product, LFAA will engage in vigorous promotion and marketing of Liberian films both at home and abroad.

This effort to promote and market Liberian films has given birth to LiroviaTV Network which is serving as a medium through which Liberian films will be promoted and marketed. “Lirovia” is the combination of the first two letters in Liberia (Li) and the last five letters in Monrovia (rovia). This medium is very crucial as it will become the platform which can be assessed by Liberians through social media.

According to the founders of LiRovia, “We believe it is time that a platform is established to give birth to the vision of our film makers across the board. Many Liberians after the civil war have been making waves on the entertainment and film Industry- with the release of movies such as “Imported Bride,” “Crucial Decision,” “Legalization,” “Juetey,” “The Blessed Cursed” and many more. The least that we can do is to promote these Liberian films to the rest of the World. Liberia has the talents and it’s time that the world gets “Edutained”… LiroviaTV brings together the finest movies from Liberia and abroad to give Liberians the best movies made for Liberian and made by Liberians.”

In its efforts to reach out to Liberians, especially those in the diaspora since LiRovia is a diaspora entity, it has approached ULAA (Union of Liberian Associations in America) as well as the Liberia Film Union to network collectively in promoting Liberian films.

Today, Liberians are producing more and more films but the films have not being adequately promoted to reach the international market. This is where Lirovia TV Network comes in to spread the good news. As such, Liberian film makers are encouraged to form collaborative network with LiRoviaTV Network in their effort to reach out to larger audience.

According to Ms. Frances Brown, “This is the only way we see that this vision will become reality for the film makers, actors and actresses to get returns on their investments.” This collaborative effort will serve as a copyright protection for Liberian films.

While LiRovia may have a grand vision for promoting Liberian films, it also realizes that it must reach out to the Liberian government and see how it can institute good cultural policy that will help the over all promotional objective of Liberian films. The government support is also crucial to enforce copyright laws to protect Liberian films.

LiRovia TV is headed by two enterprising female Liberians, Ketruah Davies Ricks AKA LadyK as president and Frances Brown as VP.

Nvasekie N. Konneh