Paper long abstract:

<b>Co-author: Grace Hassan, University of Ghana</b></br>

This paper is a study of two award winning Ghanaian video films, A Stab in the Dark and Ripples. One major criticism of the recent phenomenon of the proliferation of Nigerian and Ghanaian videos has been that they lack the finesse of high art. While they have increased in quantity and popularity over the past ten years, there are still questions as to their increasing quality. Improvements in video technology have certainly contributed to better sound and picture quality of these popular art forms. The quality of the contents, the storyline and other dramatic elements has remained largely unexamined. The main thrust of this paper is an examination of these two specific examples from Ghana, in an attempt to analyse the negotiations between popular taste and traditional aesthetic demands.