Ghanaian Filmmaker's Trove of Rare Footage Reveals Untold Story of Nation's Founding

In 2025, a new documentary titled "The Eyes of Ghana" sheds light on the untold story of Ghana's founding, as seen through the lens of a 90-year-old reverend named Chris Hesse. Hesse served as the personal filmmaker to Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and over the course of Nkrumah's tenure, he amassed an archive of over 200 hours of rare documentary footage.

However, Nkrumah's authoritarian tendencies, including declaring Ghana a one-party state with himself as president for life, eventually led to a coup in 1966 that toppled his regime. During the coup, most of Hesse's films were burned, but the filmmaker secretly maintained an archive of the negatives in London. Even as a nonagenarian, Hesse continues to make the annual trip from Ghana to London to ensure the safety of his life's work, hoping that the archive will one day be digitized and his side of the Nkrumah story will be told.

The documentary "The Eyes of Ghana" explores Hesse's passion for filmmaking and his unwavering commitment to preserving Ghana's cinematic legacy. It also delves into the complex legacy of Nkrumah, who is remembered by some as a hero and by others as a narcissistic would-be dictator. Hesse's footage provides a unique and intimate perspective on this pivotal figure in Ghana's history, offering a glimpse into the nation's origins that has long been obscured.