TheOrator.Press Film News & Review Special! A New Director’s Cut of 1991 Award-Winning, African, Ghanaian Film ‘Ama: A Voyage of Discovery’ Inspires Us To Revist The Recurring Issues of The Afr0-Caribbean Diaspora. And Over 30 Years Later, It’s Still As Relevant As Ever. September 2023

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Ama: A Voyage of Discovery (Director’s Cut 2023 At The BFI)

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The Chosen One

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on Saturday 16 September 2023 TheOrator.Press (TO.P) Attended A Special Screening of A New Directors Cut of The 1991 African Film ‘Ama: A Voyage of Discovery’ At The BFI (British Film Institute), Southbank, London. Originally Made In Association With Channel Four Funding It Was The First African Film To Be Made In Britain Back In The Early Ninties. The Special Screening, Just Before The Start of The British Film Festival (4-15 October 2023) Was Honoured By The Attendance of  His Excellency Papa Owusu-Ankomah, Ghana’s Former High Commissioner Who Introduced The Film. And It Was Followed By A Q&A Session With Actor Georgina Ackerman And Director Kwesi Owusu, Hosted By Film Lecturer, #Imruh Bakari.

Twelve Year Old School Girl Ama Ababio (Georgina Ackerman) Is A Well-Adjusted, Pre-Pubescent, Happy Young Lady, Who Lives At Home With Her Black, Middle-Class, Ghanaian Parents And Her Older Brother, Joe, An Aspiring Boxer (Played By Richard Griffith, Who Currently Plays Mitch In Eastenders). Her Mother (Played By Ghanaian Actress Amina Misa) Is Mild-Mannered, Dutiful And Currently Reduced From Her Ususal Social Standing, To Office Cleaning Because Her Husband, Babs (Played By The Late Ghananian Actor & Opera Singer Thomas Baptiste), Notably Older That Her, Is Unwell. He Is Ailing With Pains Throughout His Whole Body (Especially His Feet, Which Daughter Ama Kindly Takes To Massaging For Him Ocassionally. And Excruciatingly!).

Her Gregarious Uncle Is Visiting And Her Mother Does Not Want Him To Know About The Newly Necessary Menial Work. So Before He Even Arrives She And Ama Enter The Realm of Secrets And Subterfuge. This Sets Something of An Undertone.

On A Family Day Out To A Stately Home In The Countryside Ama Is Drawn Deep Into The Greenary And Forestry of The Integral Woodlands, Beckoned By The Unprecedented, Intriguing, And Overwhelming Spiritual Call of Her Ancestoral Messengers. Within This Improptu Magical World Eventually She Finds A Small Strategically Hidden Package (Containing Some Peculiar Floppy Discs) Which She Investigates On A Computer As Soon As Possible When She Accompanies Her Mother To Her New (Secret) Cleaning Job At The Office.

The Clunky 1990s Computer (of Course Not Clunky or Dated At The Time But Cutting Edge Technology of The Era) Reveals That She Has Been Chosen To Diplomatically Deliver A Prophecy. It Decrees That Babs Must Return To His Homeland of Ghana In Order To avoid Certain Death And Joe Must Foregoe A Boxing Fight In Order To Avoid Being Paralyzed. A Heavy Burden Indeed For A Child of Just 12 Years Old.

The Intriuge Is Watching The Film Unfold As Ama And Different Members of Her Family Navigate Such A Powerful, Cultural, Magical (Yet Mortifiying And Terrifying) Phenomenon. At The Same Time They Are Also Dealing With Family Illness, Challenging Tradtional Patriarchial Roles, A Visting Larger Than Life Uncle – Who Brings His Own Tales of The Ancestors. And Libations. Plus An Also Visiting, Married, Snobby, But Environmentally Conscious, Older Sister.

And of Course, All Too Sadly, Tiresomely And Insufferably There Is The Ugly Shadow of Racism That The Black Community Repeatedly Have To Deal With As We Endeaour To Live Oridnary Lives. And Yes, Just Like All Others, Black Lives Do Matter. And Always Have Done. Including Those of Our Ancestors. Who Are Now In A Position To Watch Over Us!

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The Modern Day Outcome

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Given The Advances In Camera Pixel Quality And Filmmaking Generally The Celluloid Cinematography Looks A Little Dated In Places (As of Course Does The Technology). But The Story Remains Nonetheless Intriguing And Engaging. Not Least of All Because the Family Casting Is Quite Charming. It’s Good To See The Portral of A Black Middle-Class Family In Decent Housing. Especially As Black Middle-Class Families Are Largely Under-Represented When It ComesTo TV, Theatre And Film Making. And The Ensemble of Ghanaian Elders Interwined With London Based Youngsters Adds Additional Layers of Interest And Authenticity.

When Uncle Comes To Visit The Brotherly Love Shines Through As They Hug And Joke And The Whole Family’s Spirits Are Lifted (No Pun Intended). That’s Something Many Can Relate To As They Recall The Happy Days When The Elders Were Entertaining And There’s A Positive Vibe About The House Beyond The Day To Day, Leading To General Jolity And Happy Music Being Played. The Fact That They Went For A Family Day Out To Visit A Stately Home Was Also A Refreshing Move Away From Cultural Stereotypes.

Whilst It Plays To A Stereotypical Notion That Joe Wants To Be A Boxer, The Film Still Works Somehow Due To The Number of Non-Stereotypical Images And Portrayals. The Boxing Comes Into Its Own And Facilitates Some of The Most Powerful Scenes of The Film As Dad And Daughter Watch The Fight Together. And As We’ve Heard About of A Number of Real Life Sports Mums, In The Film Joe’s Mum Retires To Bed Unable To Watch Her Son Compete In The Official Punch Up. But This Does Not Necessarily Guarantee A Good Night Sleep!

Carnival Soon Comes Around And Once Again Spirits Are Lifted. But Not Necessarily As One Might Have Expected. Suffice To Say The Carnival Is Spiritual & Eventful. You Need To Pay Attention. It Almost Beckons You To Watch It Again As Your Soul Hungers For A Happy Ending, Whilst This Lesson In African Culture May Have Already Delivered One To The Audience, Without Some Members Even Realizing It. Initially!

‘Ama: A Voyage of Discovery’ Is An African Movie Classic. This ‘Magical Realism’ Film Is The First English Speaking African Made Film To Be Screened In Britian. And It Is A Joy To Witness Its Happy Resurgence. It Really Should Be On Black History Curriculums. Rich In Cultural References (Both African And British) Made By African Culture Experts, Living & Working In Britain At The Time, This Makes It Potentially A Great Educational Tool, For Individuals, Schools, Colleges Universities, Film Making-Courses And Race Relations Training. Indeed Theres Is A Screening Sunday October 1st At Rio Cinema Which Is Followed By A Workshop (Details At End of Article).

The Harassment of A Pre-Pubescent 12 Year Old Female Child By A Group of Racists In A Car, Somehow Stirs Memories of The Racist Gang Murder of Teenager Stephen Lawrence (Which At The Time The Film Was Originally Made Had Not Yet Happened. That Would Be Two Years Later). The Adultification of Ama As She’s Also Sexually Harassed As Well As Racially Abused By This White Male Gang Whilst Walking Home Alone, Through London Streets, Which In The Director’s Cut Now Acknowledge The Grenfell Tragedy, Also Stirs Emotions Which Are Visceral And Unexpected. Both The Lawrence Murder And The Grenfell Fire Are Significant Elements of The Update, As Well As Some New Music.

Kwesi Says It’s Impossible To Say Why Ama Was Chosen, But Her People Are Believed To Have Three Souls. One From Their Father, One From Their Mother And One From Their Own Being. And It Maybe The Particular Combination of All Three of These Souls Or The Individual Compontent That Makes A Person Special. No One Can Say. This Only Adds To The Mystical And Magical Element of This ‘Magical Realism’ Film. And Also Why It Makes A Great Source For Study.

‘Ama’ Is Currently Categorised By The BFI As Part of Its ‘African Odyessy’ Collection. When It Was Originally Made It Was Classified By The Production Team As An African ‘Magical Realism’ Film. As Such It Is of Course A Pre-Cursor To The Modern Day Alternatively Named ‘Afro Futurism’ Films. These Are Most Famously Exemplied By Marvel’s (2018) @Black Panther Starring The Late Chadwick Boseman (Which Proved To Be Marvel’s Most Successful Franchise Film Ever. Thus Exposing As Untrue, The Decades of Hollywood Gatekeepers Saying That Black Casts And Black Movies Don’t Sell Cinema Tickets). And The Sony Movies (2022) African Female Warrior Epic Starring A Super Fit Viola Davis @The Woman King Proved To Be Another Ground-Breaking Award-Winning Super Success. 

Quadraphenia Is A Classic Cult Movie, As Is Death Wish And As Is The Harder They Come Featuring Jimmy Cliff. And So Many of The Old Bond Movies Are Dated But Still Classics, Even Though Some of The Cinematography, References And Technologies Are Dated. And A Number of These Films Have Been Shown Again On TV Recently. Including This Month. Ama Stands The Test of Time And Remains A Cultural Ninties Cinematic Gem Updated With A Special Director’s Cut In 2023 Worthy of Watching Again In Modern Times As It Remains As Relevant Now As It Was Then.

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Culturally Clever Afro-Centric Class, Respect & Precision On Screen

(And Now Tech Conscious Kwesi Owusu Has A Podcast Too)

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TheAfricanDawn Podcast Hosted By Film Director & Screenwriter Kwesi Owusu @kwesi5700

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During The Post Screening Q & A Session TO.P Asked Co. Director & Screenwriter Kwesi Owusu About The Dated Computer Scenario, Bearing In Mind The Film Was Rescreened As A Director’s Cut To Celebrate Its Release Just Over Thirty Years Ago In In 1991. The Directors Cut Is About Amping Up The Film’s Best Bits And Perhaps Trimming Down Other Scenes For The Good Of The Movie. So It Provided An Opportunity For A Number of Updates. And Central To His Presentation Was The Notion of The Importance of Technology. So We Asked Why Not Present A More Contemporary Computer? To Us The Chunky Computer Stuck Out Like A Sore Thumb.

He Told The Attentive And Diverse Audience (Which In Our Estimation Was Circa Two Thirds Capacity of The BFI’s Screening Room 2) It’s Not About The Device But The Message. African Cutlure Does Not Have To Be Static As Though It Can Only Exists In A Museum. It’s Constantly Everpresent, Living, Evolving And Relevant.Even In Relation To Technology. He Wanted To Retain The Authenticity of The Technology That Was Emerging At The Time. To Change It Would Be To Virtually Do A Re-of The Film, Which He Says Is Not What They Wanted.

He’s Nonetheless Acutely Aware That Technology Has Totally Moved On Within Those Thirty Years And Developed Phones That We Can All Carry Around In Our Pockets And Multi-Task On As They Are So Much Smaller And Slimmer Than The Big Old Clunky, Chunky, Big Box Computers. They Are Now Not That Much Thicker Than The Floppy Discs From Back In The Day (Which Themselves Have Now Morphed Into Very Little Memory Cards Or Skinny Oblong Memory Sticks). Today’s Computers Are Subsequently Multitasking As Phones, Cameras, Communication Centres For Social Engagement or Business Relations, Incorporting Access To Social (Or Anti-Social) Media & Mobile Work Spaces. In Fact He Says:

And He Should Know! Because He Actually Knows The Film Like The Back of His Hand. He Is Afterall An African Culture Expert And Has A Docturate On The Subject And Has Worked With Fellow Experts. His Co. Director, Ghanaian Educated Nii Kwate Owoo, Studied Film At The London Film School And In 1970 Subsequently Made The First, Brave, Ground-Breaking Documentary Film About The Appropriation of African Cultural Art And Artefacts By The British Museum.

So Much So That It Was Even Banned By The Then Ghananian Government For Being “Anti-British”. [His Film “You Hide Me” Is Critically Aclaimed As One of The Most Important Documentaries Ever Made In Terms of African And British Property Relationships.] This Highlights The Quality of Filmmakers Involved In The Production of This African Cinematic Classic. Now Ironicaly The News Is That A British, British Museum Employee Has Allegedly Been Stealing Artefacts From The British Museum Itself (A Taste of Their Own Medicine Some Might Say).

It Was The Former Publication West Africa Magazine (In Circulation 1917-2005) That Had The Courage To Run With Owoo’s Film And Brought It Critical Acclaim Through Its Support. Both Men Were Part of The African Dawn Movement Based At The African Centre (Then Located In Covent Garden) And Also The Black Cinema Collective Which Saw Them Become Owners of The First Black Owners of A Cinema. They No Longer Own The Cinema But @kwesi5700 Hosts The Nostalgically Named TheAfricanDawn Podcast. He Informs Us He May Be Writing A Book Next Year About The Cinema Ownership, So Watch This Space.

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Fabulous African Fabrics

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These Filmmakers Were Ahead of Their Time. Before Its ‘4K’ Restoration (The Succesor To ‘HD’ Restoration), ‘Ama’ Featured A Fashion Show Staged To Raise Funds For A Climate Change & Enviromental Awareness Campaign. This Month Africa Held Its Inaugural African Climate Summit (Hosted By Kenya, September 4-6 2023). And For Years Now Supermodel Model @Naomi Campbell Has Been An Advocate For The Development of African Vogue And In 2005 She Founded The Charity @Fashion4Relief.

Additionally This Summer Saw The Launch of A New African-Centric Charity To Celebrate Hip Hop’s 50th Anniversary. On ‘Juneteenth’ This Year @BlackToAfricanFoundation Was Hosted By The Next Generation of Supermodels And Designers Namely Models  @selah Marley (Grandaughter of Bob Marley. And Daughter of Singers Lauren Hill And Rohan Marley) And @isanelba (Daughter of Actor Idris Elba). And Fashion Designer @maxwellosborne

Indeed Fashionwise One of Great Things About The Film (And The Screening At The BFI) Was The African Fabrics, Patterns And Vibrancy On Display. Faroukh Abdela Was The Fashion Director For The Production. And Model, Actor, And Writer Victor Richards @VictorRichards2905 Worked Alongside Him In Creating The Fashion Show Scene. (Victor’s Own Film, ‘Streets Paved With Gold’, A Story of The Windrush Experience, Is Long Overdue For Release And Will Hopefully Be Coming To Us Eventually After A Number of Production Issues. We Sincerely Hope So As We’ve Seen A Number of Clips And It Looks Worth Waiting For. Nobody Said Film Production, Especially Black Film Production, Was Easy).

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What The People Said

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British Library Learning Facilitator, Sandra Agard, Former Child Star & Lead Actress Georgina Ackerman (Who Movingly Shared That She Chose To Wear Her Late Mother’s Dress (After We Complimented It For Being So Elegant & Beautiful On Stage And Enquired Where She Got It During The Q & A), And Cultural Creative Writer Michelle Innis (Who Attended With Her Husband) Were Amongst The Audience Members Who Wore African Fabrics For The ‘Ama’ Event At The BFI Saturday September 16 2023)

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‘Ama: A Voyage of Discovery’, An African ‘Magical Realism’ Film. Black Panther: Wakander Forever & The Woman King, Subsequent ‘Afro-Futurist’ Films

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We Asked The Academic Director How He Fells About New Afro-Centric Modern Movies Such As @The Woman King Movie & @Black Panther. Forward Thinking Though He Is, Dr. Owusu Has Mixed Feelings About The New Genre of ‘Afro-Futurist’ Films. Speaking Directly To TO.P He Expressed The Opinion That There Are In His Opinion More Special Effects Than Accurate Historical Facts. But He Respects Them Nonetheless. This Is An Interesting Perspective From An Academic Coming From A Different Genration of Film Making. And To Be Fair To Him We Have Had Another Professor Share This Same Perspective With Us.

Owusu Also Laments The Fact That The Depth of African Culture Has Been Diluted And Reduced To Being Represented By Many Europeans As Just Voodoo. He Defines Ama As An African ‘Magical Realism’ Film. The Magical Element Is That The Stories Often Feature Tales of The Inexpilcable And Fantastical. And The Realism Is That The Stories That Have Great Cultural Significance, Are At The Heart of Various Cultural Traditions, And Have Been Handed Down Over The Years. There Is A Scene Where A Female Elder Comforts Ama After An Upsetting Encounter And Cultural Practices Come Into Play. Suffice To Say Without Giving Too Much Away, As With Caribbean Culture, Eggs Symbolize Both Endings And New Beginnings.

When The Film Was Originally Made In 1991 It Was In Association With The Relatively New Channel 4 Which Was Groundbreaking At The Time Having Become Britain’s Fourth TV Channel In 1982. It Was Experimenting At The Time And Searching For New & Diverse Projects. It Provided Ama’s Production Team Substanital Funding (A Million Pounds) To Get The Film Made. Now It Regularly Produces It’s Own Films Under Film4 of Course.

Director Dr. Owusu’s Stroke of Genius Was To Make Sure His Contract Allowed Him To Retain The Copyright. And Having Been Made In Association With Channel 4 It Opened All Kinds of Doors For The Production Team In Terms of The Film Making Process And Access And Entry Into Film Festivals. Retaining The Film’s Copyright And Those Contacts Is Essentially How Kwesi Has Been Able To Promote The Film So Widely Again This Time Around, Includng At The New York African Film Festival @africanfilmfest, BAM (The Brooklyn Academy of Music), And The BFI (British Film Institute). It Broke Records When It Was Originally Shown Accra, After Having Been Shown In Cannes When It Was First Released. In 1991.

British Eccentric Singer Kate Bush Was Able To Enjoy A Similar Retro Revival After Her Song ‘Running Up That Hill’ Featured In The First Episode of the Fourth Series of Netflix Sci-Fi Horror Hit ‘Stranger Things’ Last Year. She Retained The Copyright To Her Songs Which She Worte And Produced. So Aged 63, Virtually Four Decades On Since Her 1985 Hounds of Love Album, On Which The Track Featured, Released On Then EMI Music Label, She Had Something of A Financial Windfall As The Track Topped The Apple iTunes Chart And Became Spotify’s Fourth Most Streamed Track. It Originally Reached No.3 In The UK Charts When Released Back Then. It Also Had A Revival Having Featured In The Opening Ceremony of The 2012 Olympics. In 2011 She Actually Released An Ablum Called Director’s Cut. Katebush.com

There Are A Number of Other ‘Ama’ Events Lined Up In London This Time Around, During Black Histoy Month:

Sunday 1 October, 3pm Free Screening, Rio Cinema, 197 Kingsland High Street, London E8 2PB. Reserve A Seat Via Eventbrite

Thursday 5 October, 6.30pm, Free Workshop, Hackney Archives, Dalston CLR James Library, Dalston Square E8 3BQ. Reserve A Place Via Eventbrite

Thursday 19 Ocotber, 6.30pm, Free Screening, West Norwood Picturehouse, 1-5 Norwood High Street, London SE 27 9JX. Book Via Eventbrite

Thursday 26 October, 6.30pm, Free Event, Imruh Bakari talks to Kwesi Owusu (Directors in Conversation), Brixton Tate Library, Brixton Oval London SW2 IJQ. Book via Eventbrite)

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