Ghanaian filmmaker Shirley Frimpong-Manso has rejected criticism of foreign involvement in The Eyes of Ghana, saying attention should remain on the people who created and delivered the documentary.
Speaking to arts and culture journalist Kwame Dadzie on Showbiz A-Z on Joy FM, she said the participation of the Obamas, IShowSpeed and overseas production companies had been wrongly portrayed as inappropriate.
“IShowSpeed coming in would have basically been for the publicity. It doesn’t take away from the people who actually thought the thing and executed it,” she said.
“Somebody said the most expensive thing about film is your time. It’s the time you put in. It’s the ideas behind it. And it’s the people who actually make the move.”
Frimpong-Manso argued that international funding was common in major film productions and said there was no reason a project about Ghana should not receive financial backing from abroad.
She questioned why some people had treated the involvement of foreign contributors as a controversy, particularly when the documentary presents Ghanaian history in a positive way.
“First off it’s art. And especially when you have been mentioned in something, you take advantage of it and you own it,” she said.
“What is wrong if somebody even did it, and we had no Ghanaians in it. If it’s shedding positive light on our history, you embrace it and you go with it.”
She compared that response with the pride Argentinians show in Lionel Messi, saying: “Argentinians everywhere, no matter what Messi is doing, for them it’s Argentina. And you claim it and you own it and that’s how it’s supposed to be.”
The Eyes of Ghana is directed by two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ben Proudfoot. It follows 93-year-old Ghanaian cinematographer Rev. Dr Chris Tsui Hesse, who was personal cameraman to Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
The documentary also examines Hesse’s efforts to preserve more than 1,000 reels of footage recording Ghana’s independence and the wider African liberation movement.
Its production team includes Proudfoot, Nana Adwoa Frimpong, Anita Afonu, Moses Bwayo, Brandon Somerhalder, Ethan Lewis, Vinnie Malhotra and American streamer IShowSpeed, whose real name is Darren Watkins Jr. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are executive producers through their company, Higher Ground.
Other Ghanaian contributors include co-producers Yaw Amponsah Apenteng and Justice Baidoo, assistant editor Annabelle Toe and featured instrumentalist Dela Botri.
The film premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and was screened at the University of Media, Arts and Communication’s Institute of Film and Television in Accra in April 2026. It is due for a one-night cinema release in the United States and Canada on Wednesday, 28th October 2026, followed by a free screening at Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra on Saturday, 31st October 2026, at 6.30 pm. Registration is required.
Frimpong-Manso, one of Ghana’s established directors, writers and producers, has made films including The Perfect Picture, A Sting in a Tale, Adams Apples, 6 Hours to Christmas, Contract, Potomanto, Love or Something Like That, Rebecca and Potato Potahto through Sparrow Productions. She has won Best Director at the Africa Movie Academy Awards and received other Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards recognition.
Her latest comedy, Agency for the Dead, opens in Ghanaian cinemas on Friday, 30th October 2026. The film features Anita Erskine, David Dontoh, George Quaye, Joselyn Dumas, Mawuli Gavor, Omari Dwamena, Rhoda Ampene and Yvonne Okoro, and offers a comic interpretation of Ghanaian folklore and childhood ghost stories.
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