Country Premiere - Amazing Grace

Hanging out with the MPA study abroads was hilarious. I think only two of us had been to Africa before, and I was the only one who had been for an extended period of time, so it was funny watching their reactions to typical West African events we participated in.

Like this one - It was the country premiere of the movie "Amazing Grace" at the National Theater. We thought we'd check it out. It was a big deal, especially because of being on that side of the slave trade. They rolled out a red carpet, had a professional come in to take photos of those attended, and everyone was dressed to the nines in traditional clothing (except us American hippies who came in our jeans). The theater was spacious and beautiful.

The event began with previews projected from another DVD - really old previews. Then they hooked up a reel and the movie started about an hour and a half later than it was supposed to. First, there was no volume, so after about five minutes of that they started it over. Next, the volume was off by about five seconds, so after about ten minutes of that, they started it over. By this time, some of the American students were really complaining. They finally announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to say that the movie had now been rewound... by hand." Everybody clapped. Then the movie started, with volume and video synced.

However, it soon became clear by the presence of microphones dangling over the actor's heads that we did not have the final (and probably not a legal), version. My favorite was the big, fuzzy mic that came down into the foreground in several shots. It was just hilarious to me. Not really atypical. None of the Ghanaians were complaining.

After the movie was over, a beautiful Ghanaian girl came out in an evening gown and sang "Amazing Grace." It was fabulous.