ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
Now in his nineties, Chris Hesse finally receives the spotlight he deserves in The Eyes of Ghana.

SYNOPSIS
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. 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. Afonu’s dream is to reveal Hesse’s films to a new generation. She sets about trying to stage a public screening in Ghana’s capital Accra at The Rex, a once-grand outdoor cinema badly in need of repair.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Ben Proudfoot
PRODUCER Anita Afonu, Moses Bwayo, Nana Adwoa Frimpong, Ethan Lewis, Vinnie Malhotra, Ben Proudfoot, Brandon Somerhalder
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, John Akomfrah, Dan & Lian Gill, Max Johnson, Jonathan E. Lim, Michael Risley, Josh Rosenberg, David Treatman, Esther Wojcicki
Production Company Breakwater Studios, Higher Ground Productions