An African Election by Jarreth Merz (review)

Early in An African Election the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, upon the official launch of his campaign, reminds his fellow Ghanaians that "the eyes of the world are on us here." And indeed, despite the controversial and often chaotic nature of the 2008 election in Ghana, Jarreth Merz's documentary offers an optimistic testament to this country's desire to be once again "the black star of Africa," this time in democracy, and its resolve to show the world, in the words of a National Democratic Congress (NDC) party spokeswoman, that the continent need not always be "looked at as a basket case." This is not to say that it has been an easy mantle to bear, or that the film is merely a feel-good story about Ghana's newfound love of the ballot box. That would be giving far too little credit to the Ghanaian people, or to Merz as a filmmaker. What we see instead—with a portrayal that is accomplished with nuance and an impressive sense of immediacy—is how precariously the integrity of the democratic process held together in December 2008, when the strain of a bitterly close election (and subsequent runoff) between Akufo-Addo and the NDC candidate Atta Mills was at its height, and when the impulse toward antidemocratic solutions and violence—legacies of both Ghana's colonial past and much of its fifty years since independence—seemed to loom greatest.

What makes the film utterly riveting is Merz's bold insistence on being the "fly on the wall" at every twist and turn. In the best tradition of election films and direct cinema—from Robert Drew's 1960 groundbreaking film, Primary, to D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus's 1993 documentary tour de force, The War Room—we are right there on stage with the candidates at teeming party rallies, in the car with them driving around Accra, alongside them on the campaign trail, and inside many a crowded room for press conferences and photo ops. An African Election also provides the occasional insider view of the Ghanaian electoral process. Foremost among these moments—and arguably the most engrossing sequence in the film—is an episode in which we are taken into the electoral commission's "strong room" where the votes are collated, and where we see an NDC party agent beside himself when a late and mysterious fax comes in with inflated results, now favoring the NPP candidate. Merz's approach, however, is neither purely observational nor without its own influence on the behaviors of those he is filming; during the "strong room" episode one almost gets the sense that everyone is very aware of the camera—the angry NDC party agent playing up to it, the sheepish NPP representative shying away from it, and the rest of the room embarrassed by its presence.

Transgressing the dogma of direct cinema, Merz interviews his subjects and includes relevant archival footage, ultimately to the benefit of the film. By deftly integrating these interview and archival clips with his election footage as the events unfold, Merz broadens our understanding of the historical, political, economic, continental, and global context of the election. Along the way, we hear from a diverse assortment of Ghanaians: the son of Kwame Nkrumah; former President Jerry Rawlings; standing President John Kufuor; current candidates Akufo-Addo and Atta Mills (the eventual winner); as well as the electoral commissioner, Afari-Gyan, who emerges as something of a calming counterpoise to the increasingly incendiary Rawlings. Moreover, we get insights and opinions from a governance expert, the comedian Kwaku Sintim-Misa, local journalists, party operatives, and various representatives of the vox populi (especially poignant among these are the interviews with an Oubasi gold miner and farmer, Moses Imoro).

However, for all its verité vibrancy and Mayslesian authenticity, An African Election does little to explore the social and economic issues at stake (such as the vast oil reserves that were discovered off Ghana's coast in 2007), or, for that matter, what...