Filmmaker King Ampaw turns 80

He has a kind of hearty laughter that springs from deep inside him, the sound alone which tells any close pal, without even catching sight of him, that it is filmmaker King Ampaw once again expressing his usual positive disposition.

That ability to put people around him at ease, while doing what is necessary, is a quality that has endeared him to many, especially in filmmaking corridors in Ghana, Germany and other places.
 
So a great deal of laughter and good vibes flowed on Saturday, July 25, when close pals gathered at King Ampaw’s residence at Teshie-Nungua Estates to mark the man’s 80th birthday.  
 
“‘I have done my best for film in this country over the years. I’m happy my work is valued here and beyond,” says King, who was born at Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region on July 25, 1940.

Kukurantumi, Road To Accra
He became associated with film in Germany in 1963 and has ever since stayed with the medium. The best-known films he has directed are Kukurantumi, Road to Accra (1983), Nana Akoto (1985) and  No Time to Die (2006).

His films have been shown in theatres, on television and at festivals in places such as France, Canada, Germany, India, United States, Australia, China and Spain.

King Ampaw (right) and actor David Dontoh who starred in Kukurantumi, Road to Accra

Kukurantumi, which featured actors such as David Dontoh, Evans Oma Hunter, Amy Appiah, Dorothy Ankomah, Rose Fynn, Charles Ansong and  Ernest Youngmann, was described by the highly respected New York Times as  “a lively, good-humoured film.”

Kukurantumi is about a lorry driver whose already hard life is thrown into chaos when his lorry breaks down and he can no longer feed his family. He tries to marry his daughter off to a wealthy businessman. Events, however, go from bad to worse when she elopes to Accra with her boyfriend.

“I think people warmed up to it because of the fact that it is a simple human interest story that almost everyone relates to,” King said about the film after it was shown at a festival in the United States.

No Time To Die
No Time to Die featured players such as David Dontoh, Fritz Baffour, Agartha Ofori, Kwesi France, Kofi Bucknor, Amartey Hedjoleh and Kofi Middleton-Mends. It is a love tale that also treats the issue of funerals in our society but with a twist of comedy.

David Dontoh and Agartha Ofori played lead roles in No Time To Die

David Dontoh plays the role of Asante, a hearse driver who finds it hard winning a woman because of the nature of his work. His luck shines when a young woman, Esi, hires him to convey her mother’s corpse to the village.

They fall in love but Esi’s father becomes a stumbling block to their romance. The ensuing drama affords Dontoh the opportunity to unfurl his acting prowess.

The role won him the Best Actor award at the 4th African Film Festival of Tarifa in Spain in 2007. In a comment on the film, King Ampaw said: “It is about ourselves and some of the things we value.”

King Ampaw, with German director Werner Herzog, was an actor in Cobra Verde

Apart from making his own films, King has co-produced others. They include the epic Cobra Verde in 1987 which featured the well-known German actor, Klaus Kinski. The film was directed by Werner Herzog and King also acted in it.

That was followed by African Timber directed by Peter Bringmann in 1989 and Anansi directed by Fritz Baumann in 2001. He was again co-producer on Welcome Home, another German feature film shot in Ghana in 2003.

King entered the Academy of Film in Postdam, Germany in 1963. He continued his studies at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria, before proceeding to the Academy of Television and Film in Munich, Germany, completing in 1972.

He worked for four years as a senior film director with the Film Production Unit of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) opting out to work on his own through his Afro Movies Limited company.

Recognition
His works are recognised in some important film circles. He won The Film Critics Award for Kukurantumi at Fespaco in Ouagadougou.

He also grabbed the  Input Film Award for Nana Akoto in Czechoslovakia. King was also the winner an Honorary Award at an edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in Nigeria.

He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Accra International Film Festival (AIFF) in 2013.

King Ampaw was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the Accra International Film Festival
King Ampaw said on completion of No Time to Die, that it was his last film. It was obvious his decision was influenced by the difficulty in raising funds for productions.

Film insiders, however, often say that people who go into filmmaking with all their hearts are never able to back out. The more challenges there are to make films, the more determined they become to realise their dreams.

Nkrumah project
King Ampaw has been working on a project about Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah, for a long time. It has been hard raising funds but film fans would love to see him back on location again calling the shots.

King Ampaw (right) with filmmaker Kwaw Ansah at an event in Accra