SUNDAY, march 22 / 2:00 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Program: Tuktuit: Caribou, The Eyes of Ghana

This program is presented with the support of the Ottawa Black Film Festival

This screening will be introduced by Aboubakar Sanogo, Professor of Film Studies at Carleton University and a renowned expert on African cinema. Professor Sanogo is also the Chair of the Canadian Film Institute Board of Directors.

Feature presentation \

The Eyes of Ghana is a beautiful celebration of the value and indispensability of the cinematic archive, of the endlessly inspiring and irrepressible narratives it contains, of its spectral power to have us relive the great historical moments of our times, and of its ability to put pressure on our present [by making it contingent], so that it could yield more.

Aboubakar S. Sanogo, Associate Professor, Film Studies, Carleton University

“The power of cinema has a profound spokesperson in Chris Hesse who toiled in obscurity for six decades. Now in his nineties, Hesse finally receives the spotlight he deserves in The Eyes of Ghana. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Hesse was the personal cameraman to Ghana’s revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah. That made him an eyewitness to Africa’s tumultuous liberation movement away from colonialist rule. Nkrumah was deposed in a coup and his rivals sought to destroy all his filmed records. But Hesse found a way to preserve over 1,300 reels. They’ve scarcely been seen since they were filmed. As Hesse nears the end of his life, we watch him share his legacy with the young Ghanaian filmmaker Anita Afonu, whose passion for cinema burns as brightly as his. Afonu’s dream is to reveal Hesse’s films to a new generation. She sets about trying to stage a public screening in Ghana’s capital Accra at The Rex, a once-grand outdoor cinema badly in need of repair.

The Eyes of Ghana has an extraordinary team behind it. Afonu serves as a producer alongside Ghanaian-Canadian Nana Adwoa Frimpong and the Oscar-nominated Moses Bwayo. Oscar-nominated composer Kris Bowers provides the score. Serving as executive producers are Barack and Michelle Obama through their production company, Higher Ground.

The director, Ben Proudfoot, has a gift for honouring overlooked figures and two of his short films where he does so have won Oscars. He met Hesse by happenstance and the two immediately recognized kindred spirits in one another. The coming together of all these talents is a cause for celebration.”

Thom Powers, Toronto International Film Festival

Short film \

Tuktuit: Caribou

2025 / 15 minutes / Nunavut, British Columbia
Director: Lindsay McIntyre
Language: Inuktitut, English
Subtitles: English

An experimental documentary created with handmade and manufactured emulsions exploring the close and enduring connections between Inuit, caribou, lichens, and land use. Lichen developers help bring the images to life, while caribou hide is processed into gelatin to make handmade emulsion. Filmed primarily on the land in Nunavut where caribou struggle to maintain their lifeways amidst burn events, habitat disruption and changing conditions.