The Eyes of Ghana

In 1957, the British colony of the Gold Coast gained its independence. Kwame Nkrumah was the first president and prime minister of the country that would henceforth be known as Ghana. He played a significant role not only in his own country but throughout Africa as a prominent advocate of Pan-Africanism. Much of what Nkrumah did, even before independence, was captured on film by cameraman Chris Hesse, a pioneer of Ghanaian cinema and the chronicler of Ghana’s modern history.

Hesse, now in his nineties, has embarked on a new mission: to restore all that valuable footage, which was long thought to have been lost following the 1966 coup. He is doing this in collaboration with the young Ghanaian documentary-maker Anita Afonu. Canadian director Ben Proudfoot has documented this intergenerational collaboration, posing the questions: how is history shaped, how does it influence the present, and who has the right to tell that history? The credits list Barack and Michelle Obama as executive producers.