Examining Themes and Style in Kwaw Ansah’s Creative Works

Abstract

This study focuses on some films of one of Ghana’s foremost filmmakers - Kwaw Ansah whose works have won many international awards. Ansah has a number of films to his credit as well as plays, commercials and documentaries. In spite of his internationally acclaimed status as a legendary filmmaker, much has not been done in terms of a critical and an in depth analysis of some of his well-known films such as Love Brewed in the African Pot, Heritage Africa, The Love of AA and Suffering to Lose. Therefore, this work sets out to critically examine the thematic concerns and styles as used in the selected films above with the view to highlighting the contributions of Ansah to the Ghanaian film industry, on one hand, and on the other hand, that of Africa as a whole. This research adopted the qualitative method of study involving focus group discussions for a controlled number of participants who viewed the four films. It was followed by an indepth analysis and discussions on the styles and themes as espoused in the four films. The theoretical framework of this study has underpinnings from the Post-Colonial theory. This theory was used to explore the personal style of Ansah and how he creatively manipulates the themes in his works. Some of the findings of this work are that Ansah is a conscious filmmaker whose thematic concerns border on socio-political issues ranging from widowhood rights to the marginalization of such women. Other subject matters he tackles include family, friendship, and cultural advocacy. Furthermore, some of his films deal with issues of cultural alienation as well as the acculturation of western culture. The study also found that the filmmaker employed different techniques like the use of lights, shots, music and camera movements to convey all the above messages. One major contribution of this work to existing knowledge is the attempt at bringing to the fore Kwaw Ansah as a pioneer filmmaker who has consciously imbibed African mores and values in his filmmaking art.