THE FIGHTING SPIRIT
Ghana/UK 2008, Camera/Director: George Amponsah, 80 min., engl. OmU

Synopsis
Drei Boxer, zwei Männer und eine Frau aus einem winzigen Shantytown in Ghana erkämpfen sich ihren Weg in die glitzernden Ringarenen von New York und London, wo sie um die grössten Preise im Business boxen. Eine Geschichte des modernen Afrika und der Träume und Ambitionen seiner Jugend, die um Respekt und Anerkennung für die Heimat kämpft.
http://www.thefightingspirit.net

George Amponsah
George Amponsah is an award winning, critically acclaimed director who has been making films since the late 80’s when he became a super-8 movie addict. His latest feature length documentary is The Fighting Spirit about 3 young boxers, 2 men and a woman who fight their way out of an impoverished shantytown in Ghana in to the rings of New York and London for the biggest prizes in the business. The Fighting Spirit was produced with Guardian Films and funded by CBA DFID, Channel4 Brit Doc and ITVS. In 2004 George directed and produced The Importance of Being Elegant about a bizarre cult of fashion lead by the flamboyant Congolese singer –Papa Wemba. The feature doc aired on BBC2 as a flagship instalment of the channel’s Storyville strand. Elegant had taken 2 years to complete and received widespread critical acclaim. It was short listed for 2005’s Grierson Award and won Best Documentary at The Zanzibar Film Festival. George has worked with a number of top-flight television production companies as a freelancer and can work as a director in team or as a camera/director with experience of shooting on most professional formats. George is a graduate of The UK’s prestigious National Film and Television School where he won a Post-Office scholarship to attend the documentary directing course. He also has a Kodak award winning commercials show reel and has directed a number of corporate videos over the years. At present George is developing several new documentary projects.
http://www.georgeamponsah.com