A documentary nearly nobody expected is heading to North American theaters this month, and the names attached to it read like an unlikely pairing until you understand what actually pulled them together. "The Eyes of Ghana," produced by streamer iShowSpeed and executive produced by former U.S. President Barack Obama alongside Michelle Obama, opens for a one-night theatrical release on October 28 across the United States and Canada.
The film, directed by two-time Academy Award winner Ben Proudfoot, follows 93-year-old Chris Hesse, the personal cameraman to Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah. Hesse spent decades capturing the birth of African independence on film through the 1950s and 60s, footage that eventually disappeared from public view, hidden away in London out of fear that it would be destroyed. Now, with his eyesight failing, Hesse is racing against time to rescue and bring home more than 1,300 reels documenting a period of African history that very few people alive today witnessed firsthand on camera.
iShowSpeed, whose real name is Darren Watkins Jr., joined the project as a producer after visiting Ghana earlier this year during his "Speed Does Africa" tour, a 28-day journey across 19 countries that he said reshaped how he saw the continent. "I felt a profound connection to Ghana when I visited this year, and learning about Chris Hesse's work deepened my understanding of the country and its people," he said in a statement. His visit left enough of an impression that Ghana's government granted him citizenship, with Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa telling him to "keep making our great nation Ghana, and our beloved African continent proud."
Barack and Michelle Obama serve as executive producers through Higher Ground, the production company they founded to back stories with cultural and historical weight. The film first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025, where it opened the festival's documentary program and drew early praise, with one review calling it "a love letter to the power of cinema."
What makes the project land differently is the gap it bridges. A 93-year-old Ghanaian cinematographer who filmed the birth of a nation, a former U.S. president backing the effort to preserve that history, and a 21-year-old internet streamer known mostly for chaotic livestreams, all working to make sure more than a thousand reels of African independence history don't disappear for good. "History should not be erased," the film's own tagline reads, and for one night at least, theaters across North America will make sure that history gets seen.
©️ Okon David Ekanem @TalkAfrica.com.
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