LA Woman Rising
A love letter to the real women of Los Angeles. Narrated and executive produced by Rosario Dawson. Best Documentary at Filming Italy (2019) and Best Director at AmiCorti Film Festival (2021).
Selected work
Behind the camera.
Films directed by Nana Ghana.
You Are Always Right Here
Written, directed, produced, and starring Nana Ghana.
Water Warrior
Nana Ghana’s directorial debut, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Winner of the Climate Prize at Le Temps Presse Festival de Courts Métrages (2017).
Watch on Vimeo ↗
Play here
Electing
Recipient of Best Director at the Oregon Short Film Festival.
Watch on Vimeo ↗
The Past Is
Play here
Nana
A short film featuring poetry by Charles Bukowski.
THE PAST
IS YET
TO COME
IS YET
TO COME
In development · Narrative feature
The Past Is
Yet to Come
After her father’s death, a young West African woman seeks spiritual guidance and is drawn across time into an uprising aboard an eighteenth-century slave ship. Guided by Eshu, the Yoruba deity of crossroads, she encounters the ancestral resistance and cultural memory that continue to shape the African diaspora.
A speculative historical drama inspired by Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno.
KTOWN
MIDNIGHT BALLERINA
MIDNIGHT BALLERINA
In development · Los Angeles noir
KTOWN
Midnight Ballerina — Chapter One.
Zelda wakes with no memory of the night before. As she retraces a mysterious delivery, she discovers the dangerous forces moving through Los Angeles after dark.
On screen
Acting.
Selected credits
- All’s Fair Television · Hulu
- White Rabbit Film · Sundance 2018
- Babylon Film
- What/If Television
- Mighty Oak Film
- Lost Transmissions Film
- Clowning Film
More about the work
Named an “Ones to Watch” talent by Entertainment Weekly and People for her performance in White Rabbit at Sundance 2018.
The filmmaker
Between worlds.
Nana Ghana is a Ghanaian-born, Los Angeles-based actor, writer, and director whose work spans narrative film, documentary, and television. Her stories explore identity, displacement, resilience, womanhood, and belonging.
Her documentary feature LA Woman Rising received a theatrical release, and her filmmaking moves between intimate character studies and ambitious explorations of culture and memory.