“ The Eyes of Ghana ” makes a rather literal start to its story. The first frame of the film is of its protagonist’s eyes. He’s Chris Hesse, a Ghanaian filmmaker in his 90s. He’s seen getting his eyes checked and receives the news that he will lose his eyesight. However, the film is concerned with his metaphorical eyes and not his real ones; with his work, not his health. Filmmaker Ben Proudfoot , an Oscar winner for his short “The Last Repair Shop,” shows reverence to both Hesse and to the importance of cinema in a winsome tribute to a man on his last chapter of life who’s been ignored for decades.

In the 1950s and ’60s, Hesse served as the personal cameraman of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first leader and an inspiring figure in African nations’ quest for independence. Nkrumah led Ghana’s

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