Heart of Gold: Fact and Mysticism in Documentary Form

Abstract

This report seeks to summarise the process and outcomes of a practice based research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and undertaken during the academic year 2005/2006. The primary outcome of the project is the film Heart of Gold (40 minutes) and the purpose here is to augment and expand this primary outcome. Heart of Gold is a documentary project which took me, the filmmaker, back to my country of birth, Ghana, to explore how traditional story-telling may help shape a new approach to documentary forms. The documentary revolves around the changing relationship local people have to the precious and mystical metal, gold. By exploring this changing relationship, the aim was to discover what kind of stories are told about gold, how these stories are told, and how these stories and their mode of delivery may help the filmmaker create documentary narrative approaches which can encompass both realism and mysticism. The aims and objectives of the project, its process and outcomes, are described here and key answers identified with a view to encourage further exploration and debate.