George Amponsah
George Bernard Amponsah (born 1968 in Roehampton) is a British film director, who is most notable for his documentaries. His 2015 feature-length documentary film, The Hard Stop, about the death of Mark Duggan, won a 2017 BAFTA nomination for the Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.[1] In 2023, Amponsah completed direction of his first drama feature, Gassed Up – described by The Guardian as "A Scorsese-like thrill ride" – which had a UK nationwide cinema release in February 2024, and subsequently played on the Amazon Prime streaming platform.[2][3]
BiographyBorn and raised in London, England, Amponsah is of Ghanaian parentage.[4] He started taking photographs and working with Super 8mm film in the 1980s. In 1989, he attended the University of East London, and a post-graduate film won him a scholarship to take the directing course at the National Film and Television School (NFTS).[4][5] Since graduating in 2000 from the NFTS, he has taught documentary filmmaking there and at the Met Film School.[4] He continued to work as a tutor with young people, while making short films for the web and developing new feature films.[5] His 2004 BBC documentary The Importance of Being Elegant was about Congolese singer Papa Wemba. The Fighting Spirit (2007) followed three young boxers in Ghana.[6] His 2015 feature-length documentary The Hard Stop, about the death of Mark Duggan, was nominated in 2017 for a BAFTA in the category "Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer",[7][8] and for two British Independent Film Awards: Best Documentary and Breakthrough Producer.[9][10] Amponsah's debut drama feature film, Gassed Up, was announced for launch on Amazon Prime Video in 2023.[11] Gassed Up – which tells the story of a London youth who gets mixed up with a rampaging gang of moped thieves – was described in The Guardian as "A Scorsese-like thrill ride", having a UK nationwide cinema release in February 2024 and subsequently playing on Amazon Prime.[2][3] Documentaries
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