The Eyes of Ghana

An inspirational chronicle of reclamation and renewal, The Eyes of Ghana follows Chris Hesse, a film pioneer in Ghana who documented the entirety of pan-African leader Kwame Nkrumah’s run, win, and work as the young nation’s first President. Hesse, now in his nineties, is on a new quest to restore never-before-seen footage of Nkrumah’s endeavors—which were thought to have been destroyed—and recover a history of post-colonial struggle that has long been suppressed.

Directed by two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot (A Concerto is a Conversation), executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, and featuring an original score by much-lauded composer Kris Bowers (The Color Purple), the film follows Hesse and his young ally, director Anita Afonu, as they work together to preserve the cultural richness, societal complexities, and everyday resilience of the Ghanaian people through their own lens. The Eyes of Ghana poses provocative questions about how history shapes the present and who gets to tell a country’s story.