Kwaw Ansah

Kwaw Paintsil Ansah (born 1941) is a Ghanaian film-maker, whose work as writer, director or producer includes Love Brewed in the African Pot in 1980 and Heritage Africa in 1989. His first feature, Love Brewed in the African Pot, earned immediate popular and critical acclaim throughout English-speaking Africa. Despite all the awards and the success, it would be nearly 10 years before Ansah could complete his next major film project, the ambitious Heritage Africa. Yet again, the film was widely acclaimed and awarded. Since then, Ansah has produced other films, including Harvest at 17 (1994), Crossroads of People, Crossroads of Trade (1994) and The Golden Stool, the Soul of the Asantes (2000). Ansah is a crusader for African filmmaking and dramatic art, working ceaselessly for improved funding and distribution of African films within Africa. He has been chairman of FEPACI and a leader in the direction of FESPACO. In 1998, Ansah was awarded the Acrag Prize, the Living Legend Award for Contribution to the Arts of Ghana.

Early life Kwaw Paintsil Ansah was born in 1941 in Agona Swedru, Gold Coast. His mother was a trader, and his father a trained photographer (as well as a painter, musician, and dramatist). After his initial schooling at an Anglican Mission School, Ansah studied for his O-Levels in the capital city of Accra, while working as a textile designer at the United Africa Company. He has expressed enormous gratitude for his success and development as a filmmaker to his father, who wanted him to engage in his own trade of photography. However, the young Ansah, having discovered his talent for drawing and painting, had other options.

Education From 1961 to 1963 he was enrolled in London's Regent Street Polytechnic, where he obtained a diploma in theater design. Following his education in England, he studied in the US, graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the American Music and Drama Academy from 1963 to 1965. His first theatre play, The Adoption, was produced off-Broadway in 1964.

He has received several national, international and professional awards including The Order of the Nation of Burkina Faso (March 1995) for Arts & Culture; Best Documentary and TV Production Award for Crossroads of People, Crossroads of Trade (FESPACO-1995); The Grand Prix Award for Heritage Africa at FESPACO, Ouagadougou, 1989, which was the first from Anglophone Africa.

Ansah made a comeback after a while from active filmmaking in 2010 with the release of Good Old Days: The Love of AA (2010). Since then, he has made films like The Good Old Days: Papa Lasisi Good Bicycle (2011), The Good Old Days: Suffering to Lose (2012) and Praising The Lord Plus One (2013). At the first NAFTI Film Lectures in 2011 on the Ghanaian Motion Picture Industry, Ansah was honoured for his immense contribution to cinema. During that same event, he was also given the Osagyefo Lifetime Achievement Award by the Ghana Academy of Film and Television Arts (GAFTA).

In October 2014, Ansah launched a comic book based on his critical acclaimed 1980 film Love Brewed in the African Pot, the first film to be adapted into a comic book in Ghana. Ansah is a founding member of the Ghana Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Filmography Love Brewed in the African Pot (1980) Heritage Africa (1989) Harvest at 17 (1994) Crossroads of People, Crossroads of Trade (1994) The Golden Stool, The Soul of the Asantes (2000) The Good Old Days: The Love of AA (2010) The Good Old Days: Papa Lasisi Good Bicycle (2011) The Good Old Days: Suffering to Lose (2012) Praising The Lord Plus One (2013)