Ghanaian actress and filmmaker Yvonne Nelson has accused the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) of attempting to sabotage her career when she entered the filmmaking industry.
In a candid interview, Nelson revealed that FIPAG banned her after she spoke out against certain industry practices.
“I was banned by a group of men in the industry. They call themselves FIPAG. Something happened on set, and they got together. When you are a woman and you are vocal; when you are unhappy with things around you and want to talk about them, people just don’t like that,” she said.
Nelson said she believes the ban was an intimidation tactic to silence her because she was a woman in the industry.
“That was what I faced because they felt like I complained about everything that I was unhappy about. I believe in their minds, they wanted to intimidate, they wanted to end my dreams, they wanted to teach me a lesson, and they wanted to silence me as a young girl in the industry,” she added.
However, rather than succumb to the pressure, Nelson channeled her frustration into launching her own production company, YN Productions. With support from industry allies like Kelvin Kobiri (now in ministry) and Abdul Salam, she ventured into filmmaking.
“I just decided that I can do my own thing. I can produce my own movies. Why don’t I try? So, I registered a company around that time, and I started producing my movies,” she explained.
