You Hide Me

SynopsisShot over 50 years ago, YOU HIDE ME revealed for the first time previously unseen, rare Asante art treasures stolen by the British after the Sagrenti War and the invasion of Kumasi by Field Marshall Garnet Woseley in the 1870s, as well as other art treasures looted by British Expeditionary Forces. In 1970, Ghanaian filmmaker Nii Kwate Owoo managed to outsmart the directors of the British Museum and its security system to gain access to the museum’s secret underground vaults and film valuable African artifacts stowed away there. One day was enough to shoot this short film revealing the extent of the theft of African artifacts, stashed in plastic bags and wooden crates — and to make a case for their restitution.

The available version is based on the original 16mm picture negative and was made possible by a collaboration between Arsenal, the BFI (British Film Institute), and Owoo.

DirectorNii Kwate Owoo    → show biography   ← hide biography

BiographyBorn and raised in Ghana, Nii Kwate Owoo has been producing and directing films since the early 1970s. After graduating from the London Film School, he formed the first independent African film production company (Ifriqiyah Films) in the UK under which he produced and directed his first film, YOU HIDE ME, a now widely acclaimed film on the colonization of African art in the British Museum. He was the Editorial Manager of Écrans d’Afrique, published by FEPACI, The Pan African Federation of Film Producers. He has been active in the movement for a Pan African Cinema and co-produced and directed the feature documentary film OUAGA – African Cinema Now in 1988 and Ama: An African Voyage of Discovery (1991) with Dr. Kwesi Owusu.

CountryGhana

Year1970

LanguageEnglish