Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Chris Hesse was the personal cameraman to Ghana’s revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah. That made him an eyewitness to Africa’s tumultuous liberation movement away from colonialist rule. In 1966 Nkrumah was deposed in a coup and his rivals sought to destroy all his filmed records. But Hesse found a way to preserve over 1,300 reels. They’ve scarcely been seen since they were filmed.
As Hesse nears the end of his life, we watch him share his legacy with the young Ghanaian filmmaker Anita Afonu, whose passion for cinema burns as brightly as his. In his first feature length film, two-time Oscar-winner Ben Proudfoot has created a warm and celebratory movie which throws welcome light on the history of Africa in the mid-20th century.
Curators’ note:
“Chris Hesse’s memories and the lens-based media he amassed during his years as the personal documentarian of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, come into sharp focus as a fading history that must be recovered from the archives. Through these rediscovered images, we experience how government policies and the tides of political ideas shaped a collective consciousness of unity and history among the people of Ghana.”
The Eyes of Ghana is simultaneously a tribute to the way movies can change the world, a postmortem for a nation’s film industry (a lack of which Hesse believes has permanently hindered its identity), and a portrait of two men who were with Ghana from the very beginning […] Cinema is magical, and storytelling is vital. Clichéd as these tropes might be, they work for a reason, and it’s hard to walk away from The Eyes of Ghana without a spring in your step caused by the 90-minute love fest for this incredible medium.
Christian Zilko, IndieWire
Having two great filmmakers match each other’s brainwaves makes this excavation of cinematic history a deeply moving examination of the power of documentary films. It’s an exceptional human portrait with a wider lens.
Pat Mullen POV magazine
A touching paean to the power of the artform and the people behind it.
Murtada Elfadi, Variety
Ben Proudfoot
Chris Hesse, Anita Afonu
USA
2025
In English, Twi, and Ga with English subtitles
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Credits
Executive Producer
Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, John Akomfrah, Dan Gill, Lian Gill, Max Johnson
Producer
Nana Adwoa Frimpong, Ben Proudfoot, Moses Bwayo, Anita Afonu, Brandon Somerhalder, Ethan Lewis
Cinematography
Brandon Somerhalder
Editor
Mónica Salazar
Original Music
Kris Bowers
Also in This Series
African Cinema Now! is an ongoing guest-curated series by Akojo Film Collective showcasing contemporary African film.
My Father's Shadow
Akojo Film Collective is proud to present My Father's Shadow, launching African Cinema Now into a new year of vibrant programming at the VIFF Centre. The BAFTA-nominated film follows two boys on an adventure with their father through the streets of Lagos.
The Eyes of Ghana
In his debut feature doc Ben Proudfoot unearths the story — and the images — of Chris Hesse, personal cameraman to Ghana's revolutionary leader, Kwame Nkrumah, who was deposed in a coup in 1966. This is a fascinating history reclaimed from the archives.