Akosua Adoma Owusu Talks Filmmaking, Inspiration And New Project with Elle Magazine

Akosua Adoma Owusu is a busy woman. She’s currently producing several projects through her company Obibini Pictures, including a feature-length film and a visual essay.

Recently, she took time out of her jam-packed schedule to talk with Elle magazine about her current projects, her creative process, and her inspirations. Owusu talked at length about her experience as a Ghanaian-American, and how that experience informs her projects. “I enjoy channeling cultural tension in my work,” she explained. “I believe the [African] continent’s history is rich with fascinating stories, and film and art can be used as a window into that world.” Owusu’s feature-length film, ‘Black Sunshine’, co-written by Dr. Yaba Blay, explores the desire for acceptance, and the lengths we’re sometimes willing to go to in order to get it. It is currently in development. “I asked Dr. Yaba Blay, a scholar on skin color politics, to co-write the screenplay with me,” Owusu says. “She brings a certain realism to the characters when we are writing together.”

Akosua is a 2015 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and this is what she post on her facebook timeline concerning her interview with Elle Magazine;

""I began filming in Ghana as a way to find a place in my Ghanaian heritage. I often refer to myself as a Ghanaian-American, but I do consider myself to be an American filmmaker of Ghanaian descent. When I am in America, I feel very Ghanaian and when I’m in Ghana, I feel more American. I started travelling to Ghana with my friends from America to help me with the trauma of dealing with blackness both in Africa and in the African diaspora. My love for Africa was informed by romantic ideas about the continent as a home awaiting my arrival. Filming in Ghana, forms part of this journey."

The full interview can be viewed online for Women’s Month profiling inspiring women who are making a difference in Africa and the feature article appearing in August’s issue of South Africa's Elle Magazine.