During the late 1980s, a cottage industry developed in Ghana, West Africa, called the “mobile cinema.” It was composed of young entrepreneurs who possessed three pieces of property-- a TV, a videocassette recorder (known then as a VCR), and a portable, gas powered generator. Armed with these tools, desire and ambition, they traveled from village to village showing movies on the VCR and selling tickets to the event. They operated out in the open air at night as well as inside social clubs, houses, and restaurants. A delighted and noisy audience would sit on wooden benches, folding chairs or the ground itself, indoors or out, sometimes behind a fence of planks or sheets so those without tickets could not see. The movies they showed fall into four broad categories: Hollywood horror and action movies, most often obscure titles with an occasional hit thrown in for good measure; Bollywood movies from India; Kung Fu movies from the Hong Kong film industry; and movies from the Ghanian and Nigerian film industries, which often appear bizarre to western eyes. When a new movie came to town, or when a new venue opened up, word spread, but in the competitive world of West African entertainment word of mouth was not enough to survive, no less thrive. Most cinema operators found the only way to thrive was to increase sales, the only way to increase sales was to advertise, and the only effective way to advertise was to put up posters. The need to attract customers gave birth to what is now recognized as a distinctive, compelling collectible - the Ghanian movie poster - an item that at first glance might appear obscure, occupying a hidden corner in the larger world of movie memorabilia. However, one should not forget this happened in Ghana, the spawning ground for some of the most colorful, unusual, and flamboyant folk art found anywhere in the world. A rich artistic heritage, public taste, and the economic plight of the cinema operators and artists dictated their unique approach to the traditional movie poster; and it is the Ghanian spin on this common art form that makes these posters so memorable, usually more memorable than the films they advertised. The artists who created the posters were essentially commercial illustrators who typically used oil paint to make shop signs and other forms of advertising. When it came to the canvas they used to create the posters, their own economic circumstances and resourcefulness led them to use opened-up flour sacks. Besides being cheap and readily available, this material also proved to be the perfect size for large promotional posters. It was also durable and easily transported. These were posters destined to be rolled or folded, displayed in the sun and rain for months at a time, and carried from village to village. The result is most surviving posters have gained the patina of authenticity, aging in a distressed, engaging manner.