The Eyes of Ghana
New York African Film Festival 2026
May 6 - 12
The latest feature from two-time Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot follows 93-year-old Chris Hesse—personal cinematographer to African leader Kwame Nkrumah—on a quest to rescue an archive of films that could rewrite history.
Documentarian Chris Hesse captured the birth of African independence in the 1950s and ’60s on film as personal cinematographer to Kwame Nkrumah, the iconic African leader who helped lead Ghana to independence and served as its first president. Now 93 years old and facing impending blindness, Hesse and passionate young Ghanaian filmmaker Anita Afonu race against time to rescue and repatriate a secret trove of more than 1,000 films that were long thought to be destroyed by Nkrumah. Never seen by the public, these films may not only rewrite Ghanaian and African history, but world history itself. Ben Proudfoot, a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Short Film, crafts their inspirational journey into a stunning feature documentary. The Eyes of Ghana was executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama and won the Audience Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Please note that Audio Description is available.
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