Damn the Man, Save the Rex!
Synopsis
Damn the Man, Save the Rex! follows filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu’s ongoing effort to revive Accra’s Rex Cinema, one of Ghana’s oldest cinema houses. Built in 1937, the Rex once embodied Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of cinema as a cultural tool for independence and cultural renewal, but it has since fallen into disrepair. The film reflects on this history while reimagining the Rex as a living hub for film, art, and community.
United States, English
Cast & Crew
Director / Writer / Producer: Akosua Adoma Owusu
Producer: Mojolaoluwa Idowu, Akosua Adoma Owusu
Featuring: Akosua Adoma Owusu, Nii-Moi Addo
Cinematography: Emmanuel Aboatey Afuya, Samuel Attefuah, Akosua Adoma Owusu
Editor: Dylan Bowman, Jada Wesley
Sound Design & Mix: Kari Rae Seekins
Director Statement
Damn the Man, Save the Rex! is a personal reflection on my long-standing effort to revive the Rex Cinema in Accra, Ghana. The film draws on Empire Records, connecting its spirit of rebellion to a Ghanaian struggle to sustain a historic cinema.
Moving between past and present, it honors the Rex as a site of Ghana’s cinematic heritage while imagining its future as a living gathering place. It asks what it means to protect not only a building, but the shared experience of seeing ourselves onscreen.
As a Ghanaian-American filmmaker working between continents, I return to questions of memory, cinema, and the spaces where films are experienced. This film continues that work.
Selected Screenings
• Athens International Film & Video Festival, Ohio (World Premiere)