Films

Academy Award-winning documentarian Ben Proudfoot (The Queen of Basketball, The Last Repair Shop) turns his lens to Ghana in this tribute to the nation’s cinematic legacy and political history.

Starting in the 1950s, Chris Hesse was revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah’s personal cameraman. As Nkrumah sparked a pan-African liberation movement, eventually became Ghana’s first Prime Minister, and then first President, Hesse was right by his side. When Nkrumah was deposed in a violent coup d’etat, Hesse was there too, camera in hand.

Realizing the historical importance of his documentation, Hesse found a way to preserve over 1,300 film reels, but they fell out of circulation. That is, until the young Ghanaian filmmaker Anita Afonu forged a friendship with Hesse, and began planning a public screening at the The Rex, itself a grand relic of Ghanaian film history.

Discussion with director Ben Proudfoot.