African Diasporas. USA-Ghana. Nana Mensah: Queen of Glory - what it's like to be a child of the diaspora - interview with Janet A. Leigh on Digital Spy

African Diasporas. USA-Ghana

Nana Mensah: Queen of Glory

 - what it's like to be a child of the diaspora -

Interview with Janet A. Leigh on Digital Spy

I think what's interesting is how much Sarah, the character, is attempting to define herself outside of her culture – you know, the culture she was raised in; the neighborhood she was raised in. 

She did that, and got to exercise who she was out in the world, and then bring that raw form back to her place of origin. 

I think the thing is, we want to be able to define ourselves, right? We are so tired of having the world define us. -- Nana Mensah

Comedy - USA - 75min - 2021
Source: digitalspy.com - 26 Aug 2022. Janet A. Leigh

Synopsis (digitalspy.com)
Queen of Glory follows the story of Sarah, who must juggle familial and cultural expectations during one of the hardest times in any adult's life, the death of her mother. With this delicately humorous story, Nana tackles the difficulties first immigrants feel as they struggle to straddle two worlds, asking two very important questions: What do we owe them? Versus what do we owe ourselves?

Read entire interview at digitalspy.com https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a40956357/queen-of-glory-nana-mensah-interview/

Also see: African News Magazine Show with Nana Mensah

Ndiva Women’s Film Festival 2018: “Living Legends”, Akosua-Asamoabea Ampofo, USA

Ndiva Women’s Film Festival 

(Ghana)

NWFF 2018

Living Legends, 2018

Akosua-Asamoabea Ampofo

USA

Documentary

Profile/Description

Akosua Asamoabea Ampofo is a film student at Bryn Mawr College and also a client at Blue Sage. On April 21, 2018, she filmed a project at Blue Sage called "Living Legends".

This is how Akosua describes it: "This film project seeks to follow the journey of hip-hop as a means to express some of the sentiments and social influences of rap and hip hop and how it has been and continues to be used as a mouthpiece to tell the stories of young black people (in particular), by following a Philadelphia based rap group called Hardwork Movement. Hardwork Movement is a group that “is inclusive, original, and inspires all listeners to strive towards uniqueness in all that they do”. In order to see how these themes in rap have been communicated to people, this film will also talk to people in the Philadelphia area, discussing the legacy of hip hop and what it means to them as individuals and as members of the greater American community."
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e8R7d9_WMc)

Akosua Adoma Owusu launches Kickstarter crowdfunding for the film adaptation of On Monday of Last Week, a short story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Photo Credit Jovan Speller

Akosua Adoma Owusu launches Kickstarter crowdfunding for the film adaptation of On Monday of Last Week, a short story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

For Immediate Release: June 1, 2016 

Ghanaian Production Company Obibini Pictures LLC Options Rights to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Short Story

Contact: Obibini Pictures LLC at obibini.pictures@gmail.com

Last year, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie granted Kenyan Mexican

actress, Lupita Nyong'o, the feature film rights to her novel Americanah . Now Adichie has granted director, Akosua Adoma Owusu the exclusive film rights for her company Obibini Pictures, LLC to produce On Monday of Last Week , an adaptation of a short story of the same name from Adichie’s collection, The Thing Around Your Neck.

“I was compelled to create a new work by adapting literature from contemporary African writers. The themes of race, liberalism, and sexuality in Adichie’s short story On Monday of Last Week resonated with my films on the ‘triple consciousness’ of the African immigrant as I transition between avant-garde cinema, fine art, and African tradition to complicate the nature of identity.” Akosua Adoma Owusu

Featuring Nigerian actress, Chinasa Ogubagu, in the lead role of Kamara, this film follows a Nigerian woman on her journey to self realization. Kamara takes on a nannying job caring for Josh, the five year old son of Tracy and Neil, an interracial couple living in an upscale urban home. Under Neil’s direction, Kamara settles into a routine of prepping Josh for an academic competition and feeding him the latest kids’ health craze. The noticeable absence of Josh’s mother, Tracy, and her occasional outbursts heard from her artist’s studio in the basement intrigue Kamara. Kamara’s growing curiosity is piqued when Tracy finally emerges from her studio one afternoon. The brief encounter causes Kamara to launch into an unexpected attraction, wanting nothing more than an excuse to see Tracy again.

On Monday of Last Week will be directed and produced by Akosua Adoma Owusu and Obibini Pictures, LLC. Obibini Pictures, LLC has produced award-winning films including Reluctantly Queer , which was nominated for the Golden Bear and Teddy Award at the Berlinale, Berlin International Film Festival in 2016, and Kwaku Ananse , which received the 2013 African Movie Academy Award in Nigeria for Best Short Film. Lead actress Chinasa Ogubagu recently starred in the Off Broadway play Sojourners , earning a nomination for the 2016 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play. M.anifest, acclaimed Ghanaian rapper and co founder of Giant Steps, a Minneapolis based interactive conference for creative entrepreneurs, will be the Music Supervisor for this production.

This film is created with support from the Guggenheim Foundation and supporters of On Monday of Last Week ’s production Kickstarter campaign.

On Monday of Last Week also reflects themes explored in previous works by the filmmaker, specifically identity and standards of beauty, including her award winning short Me Broni Ba (2009) and her forthcoming feature Black Sunshine. Me Broni Ba, investigates the fraught relationship between images of beauty and power; telling an emotionally resonant story of a young child's migration from Africa to the United States and her painful efforts to fit in. Black Sunshine, tells the story of hairdresser, Rosemary Konadu, and her 12 year old albino daughter, Coco. Rosemary longs to escape her frustrating African reality. She feels ashamed of birthing an albino child, and ironically, of her own blackness. Black Sunshine received support from Creative Capital, Tribeca All Access, IFP and the Berlinale World Cinema Fund.

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/akosuadoma/on-monday-of-last-week-the-movie

Priscilla Yawa Anany: childreN of the mountaiN – 2016 Tribeca Film Festival (New York, USA)

Priscilla Yawa Anany: Children of the Mountain – 2016 Tribeca Film Festival (New York, USA)

Tribeca Film Festival: https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/children-of-the-mountain-2016

Priscilla Yawa Anany. Born in Ghana, Priscilla grew up in two other African countries before migrating to the United States in 2003. In the US, she attended the University of North Carolina School of the Art, School of Filmmaking and got a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. Priscilla also earned a Masters of Science degree in communications at The New York University as she worked as an independent filmmaker. Priscilla is currently running her film production company i60 Productions in Accra, Ghana. (Text from Children of the Mountain website).

Priscilla Yawa Anany had this to say about her film:

Children of the mountain is a story about a woman who gives birth to a deformed and sickly child. Because she’s criticized and blamed for her child’s conditions, she becomes determined to do everything in her power to find a cure of him. When all fails and she becomes hopeless, she’s pushed to getting rid of her child.

Link:

Children of the Mountain Website : http://childrenofthemountainfilm.com

Season 2 - An African City directed by Nicole Amarteifio

Season 2 - An African City

Source: YouTube. Image: Screen grab from An African City trailer

The girls are baackkkk! Nana Yaa (MaameYaa Boafo), Sade (Nana Mensah), Ngozi (Esosa E), Makena (Marie Humbert) and Zainab (Maame Adjei) return to confiding in one another about life and love in season 2 of 'An African City'. 

Season 2 will be globally available via subsciption on Sunday, January 24 at 12:00 p.m. EST: www.anafricancity.vhx.tv

Season 2 will also be available on EbonyLife TV (DSTV - Channel 165) on Monday, February 1 at 8:30pm WAT/9:30pm CAT.

Season 2 will also be coming soon in French on A+ (Canal+ Afrique)!

Nicole Amarteifio, Creator, Writer, Director & Executive Producer 

Millie Monyo, Executive Producer

Akosua Adoma Owusu presents a collection of her short films at the Athens International Film + Video Festival 2015 (Ohio, USA)

akosuaadoma.com

Akosua Adoma Owusu: presents a collection of her short films at Athens International Film + Video Festival 2015 (Ohio, USA)

AKOSUA ADOMA OWUSU is a filmmaker of Ghanaian parentage whose films have screened worldwide in prestigious film festivals, museums, galleries, universities and microcinemas since 2005.

Films to be screened: April 7, 2015 7:15 pm

Bus Nut ‘Bus Nut’ re-articulates the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, a political and social protest against US racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery Alabama and its relationship to an educational video on school bus safety. An actress re-stages a vintage video while reciting press conference audio of Rosa Parks on a recreated set in New York City.

Kwaku Ananse 2013 Kwaku Ananse is an intensely personal project which draws upon the rich mythology of Ghana. The short film combines semi-autobiographical elements with the tale of Kwaku Ananse, a trickster in West African stories who appears as both spider and man.

Split Ends, I Feel Wonderful 2012 A woman attaches hair piece, black women in hair salons get their hair plaited; and a woman models on a yellow turban. Eccentric hairstyles reveal the roots of Afro hair in which activist, Angela Davis becomes involved. Manipulating and re-positioning found footage as subject matter, “Split Ends, I feel wonderful” observes the latest fad in hairstyles of the 1970s among African Americans in NYC.

Drexciya 2010 A portrait of an abandoned public swimming facility located in Accra, Ghana. The Olympic sized pool, now in a dilapidated state, is used for locals for things other than swimming. Inspired by the myth of a Detroit electronic bands, Drexciya & Underground Resistance.

Me Broni Ba (My White Baby) 2009 Me Broni Ba is a lyrical portrait of hair salons in Kumasi, Ghana. The tangled legacy of European colonialism in Africa is evoked through images of women practicing hair braiding on discarded white baby dolls from the West.

Intermittent Delight 2007 Intermittent Delight juxtaposes close-ups of batik textiles, fashion and design from the 1950s and 1960s, images of men weaving and women sewing in Ghana, and fragments of a Westinghouse 1960s commercial- aimed to instruct women on the how-to of refrigerator decoration.

Source: Athens International Film + Video Festival

Leila Djansi : America, by any means necessary - crowdfunding for the film “Hosanna” | L’Amérique, par tous les moyens nécessaires – appel à financement pour le film « Hosanna »

A crowdfunding campaign for the film "Hosanna" by Leila Djansi | Une campagne de financement participatif pour le film « Hosanna » de Leila Djansi

For more information on the Indiegogo campaign and to make a contribution | Pour rejoindre la compagne Indiegogo et la soutenir : https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hosanna-ii

[English] Français ci-après

AMERICA, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

Illegal Immigration is a complex Economic, Political, Personal and Cultural issue. And it is most often portrayed as simply right or wrong, legal or illegal, black or white.

It’s true that no other country in the world is more generous to refugees, offering up green cards, visas, benefits and so forth.  Under today’s U.S Immigration Policy, it is very hard to come here legally and very easy to come illegally. It is a broken system at both ends. And this broken system has created 11 Million illegal immigrants.

What is Hosanna?

A Feature Film about William, an average educated man, who wants a better life for himself and believes that America is the place to accomplish his dreams. William visits the U.S. and soon becomes an illegal. He struggles at dead-end low paying jobs with only one goal in sight – to become a citizen. But years of immigration lawyers, long and arduous legal process, money and more money, it’s just isn’t working for him.

So, he turns to whatever means necessary. Whatever means necessary ends up becoming his worst nightmare and at the same time his most precious dream – his American-born son, Hosanna.

The Personal Story of Hosanna

Produced and Starring Leon Robinson, Hosanna is a very personal story, set against this monster topic of immigration. It’s one man’s dream. It’s one man’s journey. And yet it can be the symbolic dream and journey of 11 Million people.

Making a film requires a multitude of people, resources and specific things. With your support, here is just a snap shot of what your donations will go towards:

- Camera, Lighting and Sound equipment

- Cast and Crew

- Location fees and Permits

- Post Production: Final Sound mix, Color grading and Score

[Français]

L’AMERIQUE, PAR TOUS LES MOYENS NECESSAIRES

L'immigration clandestine est un problème complexe à dimension économique, politique, personnelle et culturelle. Mais elle est souvent dépeinte de manière binaire : à tort ou à raison, légale ou illégale, noir ou blanc.

Les États Unis sont généreux aux réfugiés, offrant des "Cartes vertes", des visas, divers services sociaux et d’autres prestations. Cependant, avec leur politique d'immigration d'aujourd'hui, il est très difficile d'y entrer légalement, mais de venir clandestinement peut se faire plus facilement. C'est un système brisé à ses deux extrémités. Et ce système défaillant a créé 11 millions d'immigrants clandestins.

Hosanna, de quoi s’agit-il?

C’est un long-métrage sur William, un homme moyennement éduqué qui veut une vie meilleure. Il se rend donc aux États-Unis pour réaliser ses rêves et aussitôt devient un sans-papier. Il se retrouve dans des emplois mal rémunérés et sans avenir, avec un seul objectif en vue - devenir citoyen. Mais après des années d’avocats spécialisés en immigration, un processus long et ardu, et dépensant de plus en plus d'argent, pour lui ce système ne marche pas.

Donc, pour arriver à ses fins, tous les moyens sont bons. Son approche « par tous les moyens nécessaires » finit par devenir son pire cauchemar, mais aussi son rêve le plus précieux - son fils, Hosanna, nait en Amérique.

L'histoire personnelle de Hosanna

«  Hosanna », dont Leon Robinson est le producteur et protagoniste, est une histoire très personnelle, face à ce véritable monstre de thème, l'immigration. C’est le rêve d'un homme, son voyage. Et pourtant, il peut être aussi le rêve et voyage symboliques de 11 millions de gens.

Faire un film nécessite une assemblée de gens, des ressources et des moyens spécifiques. Les fonds serviront aux :

- Caméra, éclairage et équipement de sonorisation

- Casting et équipe

- Frais et permis d’emplacement

- Post Production: Mixage définitif, étalonnage colorimétrique et  musique

FESPACO 2015 – Akosua Adoma Owusu: “Kwaku Ananse”

akosuaadoma.com

Fespaco 2015 – Short film in competition | court métrage en compétition

Kwaku Ananse  (2013)

Akosua Adoma Owusu: (USA-Ghana)

The filmmaker | La réalisatrice

[English]

Akosua Adoma Owusu is a filmmaker of Ghanaian parentage whose films have screened worldwide in prestigious film festivals, museums, galleries, universities and microcinemas since 2005.

In 2013, The Huffington Post listed Akosua in "Black Artists: 30 Contemporary Art Makers Under 40 You Should Know." She started her career in the entertainment industry as an HBO Films post-production assistant on Chris Rock's documentary 'Good Hair' where she worked under renowned cinematographers Cliff Charles and Bradford Young.

Moving between the worlds of experimental film, African cinema, and fine arts, Akosua established her presence in the fine art world after studio assisting Los Angeles-based artist Rodney McMillian and curator, Christine Y. Kim; and with her showing in 30 Seconds Off an Inch, a 2009-2010 group exhibition curated by Naomi Beckwith. At 25, she was the youngest artist to be included in this exhibition of 60 distinct artworks by 42 established artists at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

In 2010, Akosua Adoma Owusu established the production company Obibini Pictures in Ghana to produce alternative African films for international markets. Her recent projects include reviving Ghana's oldest cinema, The Rex Cinema as an alternative creative space for art, music, and film.

[Français]

Akosua Adoma Owusu est une cinéaste d'origine ghanéenne. Depuis 2005 ses films passent dans de prestigieux festivals de cinéma, des musées, galeries, universités et microcinémas partout dans le monde.

En 2013, le Huffington Post la signale comme une des trente artistes noirs contemporains de moins de quarante ans à connaître. Elle commence sa carrière dans l'industrie du divertissement comme une assistante de post-production pour HBO Films sur le documentaire de Chris Rock « Good Hair » où elle travaille sous la direction de cinéastes de renom, Cliff Charles et Bradford Young.

Navigant entre les mondes du cinéma expérimental, du cinéma africain, et des beaux-arts, Akosua établit sa présence dans l’univers des beaux arts après son passage comme assistante dans le studio de l’artiste Rodney McMillian et la conservatrice Christine Y. Kim basés à Los Angeles, et avec « 30 Seconds Off an Inch », une exposition collective organisée par Naomi Beckwith en 2009-2010. A 25 ans, Akosua était la plus jeune artiste à faire partie de cette exposition de 60 œuvres par 42 artistes reconnus au Studio Museum de Harlem.

Akosua Adoma Owusu crée la société de production Obibini Pictures au Ghana en 2010, qui a pour objectif de produire des films africains alternatifs pour les marchés internationaux. Son dernier projet comporte la revivification du plus vieux cinéma du Ghana, Le Rex, comme un espace de création alternative pour l'art, la musique et le cinéma.

Synopsis 

[English]

“Kwaku Ananse” is an intensely personal project which draws upon the rich mythology of Ghana. The short film combines semi-autobiographical elements with the tale of Kwaku Ananse, a trickster in West African stories who appears as both spider and man. Ananse teaches us that there are two sides to everything and everyone.

The fable of Kwaku Ananse is combined with the story of a young outsider named Nyan Koronhwea attending her estranged father's funeral. Nyan's father led two separate lives with two wives and two families — one in Ghana, one in the United States. Nyan's ambivalence about her father's double life is a reflection of a broader truth about the nature of our personal relationships. 

[Français]

"Kwaku Ananse" est un projet très personnel qui s’appuie sur la riche mythologie du Ghana. Le court-métrage réunit des éléments semi-autobiographiques avec le conte de Kwaku Ananse, un fripon ou farceur (en anglais : trickster) dans les contes de l’Afrique de l'Ouest qui apparaît à la fois comme l'araignée et l'homme. Ananse nous apprend qu’il y a deux faces dans chaque être et chaque chose.

La fable de "Kwaku Ananse" est reliée avec l'histoire de la jeune expatriée Nyan Koronhwea qui vient assister aux funérailles de son père qu'elle a très peu connu. Celui-ci menait deux vies séparées avec deux femmes et deux familles—une au Ghana et une aux États-Unis. L'ambivalence de Nyan envers la double vie de son père illustre une vérité plus large sur la nature de nos relations personnelles.

Source: http://akosuaadoma.com 

Images: http://akosuaadoma.com

Ghanaian-American filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu launches crowdfunding campaign to save the Rex Cinema in Accra, Ghana

Ghanaian-American filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu launches crowdfunding campaign to save the Rex Cinema in Accra, Ghana that risks being sold for redevelopment.

With the $8,000 she hopes to raise on Kickstarter, Akosua Adoma Owusu envisions transforming the Rex Cinema into a multi-purpose art space.

Go to the "Damn the Man, Save the Rex" Kickstarter page for more information: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/568625108/damn-the-man-save-the-rex

Image Source: Kickstarter "Damn the Man, Save the Rex"