Name: Film Safari Ghana
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2024-08-06
Cast: Andrew Leavold, Samuel K. Nkansah, Joseph Osei

Andrew Leavold's latest explores the little-known Ghanaian film industry

Australian outsider film-maker Andrew Leavold loves the furthest reaches of world cinema and will be remembered for "The Search for Weng Weng" in which he searched the Philippines for info about the eponymous 2' 9" action superstar. Now he's visiting the small town of Kumasi in Ghana, where self-taught, beaming Samuel "Ninja" Nkansah makes no-budget action movies inspired by and often ripped off from Hollywood and Asia. There's a lot happening here and it took me a while to work out what was going on. It turns out that Leavold is casting and location hunting for his own film, "The Taller They Come", but simultaneously he's also playing a slave trader in Nkansah's film "White Devil", which is already on his Joyline YouTube channel. Along the way we also get a potted history of the Ghanaian film industry, Nollywood's poverty-stricken relation. It's almost completely unknown outside Ghana although one or two of Nkansah's films now have what may be tongue-in-cheek ten star reviews here on IMDb. Some fans may also be aware of Ghana's wonderful, hand-painted movie posters, which became cult items in the west not so long ago. Nkansah's IMDb credits appear to be a fraction of his total output. He's churned out films with titles like "African Kung Fu Nazis" with ludicrously bloody and primitive digital effects but surprisingly proficient fights and stunts. Leavold looks as though he's having a high old time overacting his slave boss rôle and learning about Ghana's fire-and-brimstone Christianity, which even inspires some of Nkansah's bonkers films. The Aussie almost certainly shot everything here single-handedly on his phone and the dodgy sound is a real problem. Practically everything Nkansah says is inaudible, at least in the version I saw. But of course the subject matter is fascinating and of course we want to see what on earth Leavold and Nkansah will produce together on something approaching a proper budget. Leavold is trying to raise A$400,000 for "The Taller They Come".

The documentary is a form of non-fiction storytelling that aims to present factual information, insights, and perspectives on real-world subjects, events, issues, or people. Documentaries can cover a wide range of topics, including history, science, culture, social issues, nature, biographies, and more.

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FILM SAFARI GHANA explores Australian critic, filmmaker and larrikin Andrew Leavold's love for the work of Ghanaian action-movie sensation, Samuel "Ninja" Nkansah. Journeying to Kumasi to prepare his dream-film, a four-foot, kung-fu remake of THE HARDER THEY COME, Andrew soon finds himself cast in the title-role of Ninja's slavery-themed action movie, WHITE DEVIL. The birth of a partnership between two of the world's most unlikely movie mavericks.

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Andrew Leavold in Film Safari Ghana (2024)

Samuel K. Nkansah in Film Safari Ghana (2024)

Film Safari Ghana

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