Two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ben Proudfoot has partnered with Moses Bwayo and former U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on The Eyes of Ghana, a new feature documentary highlighting the extraordinary legacy of Chris Hesse — the 93-year-old, largely forgotten personal cinematographer of Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah.
Currently in its final stages of post-production, the film marks Proudfoot’s return to feature-length documentaries after a decade. The Eyes of Ghana explores the dramatic rise and fall of Nkrumah, a pivotal figure in African history who led Ghana to independence and inspired the continent’s liberation movements during the 1950s and 1960s. Celebrated globally — even gracing the cover of Time magazine in 1953 — Nkrumah was eventually overthrown in a 1966 military coup, allegedly supported by the CIA. Following his ousting, many films from his era were ordered to be destroyed.
The documentary reveals a forgotten treasure trove of archival footage from that transformative period, safeguarded for over 60 years by Hesse. Alongside his protégé, filmmaker Anita Afonu, Hesse becomes the film’s unsung cinematic hero as this long-lost footage resurfaces to tell Africa’s untold origin story.
Proudfoot first encountered Hesse at the age of 90 through Ghanaian journalist Justice Baidoo — now a co-producer on the film — while filming a UNICEF project in Ghana. Hesse confided in Proudfoot about his hidden archive of more than 1,000 films and asked for help with digitizing them. Initially conceived as a short film, the project evolved into a full-length feature after Proudfoot consulted his friend Moses Bwayo — the Ugandan filmmaker behind Bobi Wine: The People’s President — who encouraged him to expand the story. Bwayo, who once served as a personal cameraman to a revolutionary leader himself and endured life-threatening experiences during filming, now lives in the U.S. under political asylum.
True to Proudfoot’s storytelling legacy of spotlighting unsung heroes, The Eyes of Ghana unearths and celebrates a buried cinematic archive. Proudfoot has previously won Oscars for The Last Repair Shop and The Queen of Basketball, and earned a 2021 nomination for A Concerto is a Conversation. He also collaborated with the Obamas on the short documentary The Turnaround, which debuted at the Telluride Film Festival.
Produced by Proudfoot’s Breakwater Studios, Nana Adwoa Frimpong, Afonu, Bwayo, and Brandon Somerhalder, the film is co-produced with Higher Ground’s Ethan Lewis and Vinnie Malhotra, with Barack and Michelle Obama serving as executive producers. Kris Bowers, Oscar-nominated for his score in The Wild Robot, composed the film’s original music.