“Fim Safari Ghana” Theatrical Poster
Director: Andrew Leavold
Cast: Andrew Leavold, Samuel K. Nkansah (aka Ninja), Joseph Osei, Emmanuel Afriyie
Running Time: 86 min.
By Paul Bramhall
While in his native Australia Andrew Leavold may be known for many things – former cult video store owner, punk band frontman, Filipino cinema historian, sometime actor, and documentary filmmaker – internationally he’s likely to be remembered as the guy who directed 2013’s The Search for Weng Weng. A feature length documentary that chronicled Leavold’s 7-year odyssey to uncover the fate of the Philippines shortest action star, his audacity and enthusiasm to shed light on a corner of the Pinoy film industry that had been all but forgotten about was as endearing as it was revelatory. While we continue to wait for Leavold’s next passion project on Filipino cinema, a history of the bomba genre titled The Most Beautiful Creatures on the Skin of the Earth, it turns out another corner of the planet had caught his attention in recent years – Ghana.
Specifically, a director by the name of Samuel Nkansah, or as he’s more popularly known – Ninja. While Nigeria’s Nollywood film industry and Uganda’s infamous Wakaliwood studio may have been heard of by film aficionados with a taste for the more obscure (and were both part of Leavold’s own movie “mash-up”, Flying Baptists Over Nollywood), less is known about Ghana’s film output, or at least it was until Ninja came along. In the early 2010’s Ninja’s DIY approach to making out-there action movies caught the attention of Conan O’Brien, when the trailer for his 2010 production 2016 was shown on The Tonight Show (even if they didn’t know where it was from, with the guest stating that “it’s an international film.”). One look and it’s easy to see why, with its primitive digital effects telling the story of what appear to be alien/predator hybrids landing on Earth (well, Ghana), who are eventually defeated by a Ghanian terminator.
Leavold became a fan, and harbouring his own dream to direct The Taller They Come (described by the man himself as “a four-foot kung fu remake of the Jamaican reggae spaghetti western The Harder They Come”), at some point while soaking in one of Ninja’s many wild slices of low budget insanity, decided that Ghana should be the place where it’s done. Making contact with Ninja while he was touring his latest documentary in Europe, he soon found himself invited to Ghana to talk more, with the only request being to bring a white safari suit in his luggage. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, a return home to Australia was placed on hold, and soon Leavold found himself on a plane (well, actually several, since Ghana isn’t the easiest country to get to!) to spend a week with Ninja in Kumasi, the country’s second largest metropolis, or as it’s known to those making movies there – Kumawood.
Amusingly the request to bring a white safari suit is soon revealed to be because Ninja has already planned to cast Leavold as a murderous white slave trader in his newest production – White Devil: Freedom is Coming! With Leavold needing all the assistance from Ninja he can if he’s to make Ghana work as the location for The Taller They Come, he duly obliges in taking on the role, the production of which is covered in Film Safari Ghana. In many ways it could be said to be a 3-in-1 documentary – in the just under 90 minute runtime Leavold attempts to offer up a history of the Ghanian film industry (or at the very least, it’s DIY B-movie scene), we get a behind-the-scenes look into the making of White Devil: Freedom is Coming, and we also get to see Leavold casting and scouting locations for The Taller They Come ahead of his eventual return.
The result is an expectedly somewhat chaotic and unfocused affair, broken up into chapters based on each of the 7 days he spent in Kumasi, as we basically share Leavold’s own sense of being a fish out water while he attempts to get his bearings. Anyone expecting a similar experience to 2013’s The Search for Weng Weng is definitely in the wrong place, but then Leavold’s love letter to Filipino B-movies took 7 years to put together, while what we have here was done in just 7 days, so it’s perhaps unfair to compare. With that being said, it soon becomes clear that Film Safari Ghana isn’t intended to be an in depth look into the Ghana B-movie scene, with Leavold himself writing on the Kickstarter page for The Taller They Come (which was successfully funded last week) that the documentary “doubles as the feature-length pitch video for our Kickstarter campaign”.
To that end, his latest paints a vivid snapshot of how the DIY action movie developed in Ghana, for which Ninja was a pioneer, and would soon find himself inspiring others to follow the same path. While Ninja himself tends to stay behind the camera in his movies, we also get to meet some of the actors who gained popularity from being in front of it. Most memorable is Emmanuel Afriyie, who played the title character in Ghana Ip Man, and we also get the lowdown on some of the other famous local faces like Andrew Ntul Mensah, who played Scorpion in Ghana’s own version of Mortal Kombat (it’s worth noting that it also has its own versions of Ong Bak, Terminator, and Rambo as well!). Leavold’s typically affable approach to the material is always a pleasure to listen to, and never falls into the trap of looking down on the productions, which in another filmmaker’s hands it could easily have gone down the path of.
If anything the least interesting parts of Film Safari Ghana are arguably the sections devoted to his upcoming production The Taller They Come. While I’m always a fan of ‘making of’ documentaries, Film Safari Ghana is in that odd position of focusing on a movie which is only in the pre-production stage, putting it in somewhat of an odd position from a narrative point of view. Theres what’s best described as something of a disconnect between the excitement Leavold expresses as he scouts locations and casts many of Ninja’s regulars, and the narratives inability to transfer that feeling of excitement to the audience watching. From that perspective the documentary could well be viewed in a different light once The Taller They Come has been released, when it’ll be possible to appreciate the part of the journey the documentary covers in hindsight, versus today when it’s detailing one which is still progress.
Hopefully that will would also give enough time to address the single biggest issue that Film Safari Ghana suffers from – the audio quality. While Leavold’s narration and the wealth of movie clips that populate the runtime are perfectly clear, the footage shot on location that features Ninja talking is practically inaudible. The workaround is to reach for the volume button whenever a clip of Ninja appears and crank it up, only to find yourself partially deafened whenever Leavold’s voiceover kicks in (or a movie clip plays), or resign yourself to not understanding a word one of the most important people featured in the documentary has to say (which is the option I reluctantly went for after jumping out of my seat one too many times trying to former). At the very least, subtitles need to be added to the sections shot in Ninja’s home where most of his interview footage is shot, as the audio does him a massive disservice.
The end credits confirm that The Taller They Come will be filming in Ghana during January and February 2025, so with much longer in the country than just a week, hopefully it’ll also offer Leavold the opportunity to gather more footage to flesh out his latest, a Film Safari Ghana: Redux if you will. As it is the 7 days he opted to throw himself into headfirst offers up a fascinating glimpse into a rarely seen corner of the world, one that grew up on a heady mix of Hollywood, kung-fu movies, Bollywood musicals, and spaghetti westerns. Watching the results of such a concoction from those like Ninja, for whom cinema became a lifelong passion, it’s difficult not to smile when you see how far an amount as small as $50 can go if the passion and drive is there. Credit to Film Safari Ghana for giving them their time in the spotlight, one which is well deserved.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10
This sounds like fun. My fiancé has family from Ghana, so she can tell me more details about the locations where they shoot. I did see the Ghanaian Ip Man, and a few of their trailers have been featured at reshot for The Alamo Drafthouses across the US. They may not have much money, but at least the film makers have a lot of enthusiasm.