George Bernard Amponsah (born 1968 in Roehampton) is a British director of documentary films. George completed direction of his first drama feature in 2023 - ‘Gassed Up’ – about a London youth who gets mixed up with a rampaging gang of moped thieves. The Guardian called Gassed Up ‘A Scorsese-like thrill ride’. Gassed Up had a UK nationwide cinema release in Feb 2024 and subsequently played on the Amazon Prime streaming platform.
Amponsah's 2015 feature-length documentary about the death of Mark Duggan, The Hard Stop, won him a 2017 BAFTA nomination for the Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.[1]
Born and raised in London, Amponsah is of Ghanaian parentage.[2] 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).[2][3] Since graduating in 2000 from the NFTS, he has taught documentary filmmaking there and at the Met Film School.[2] He continued to work as a tutor with young people, while making short films for the web and developing new feature films.[3]
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.[4]
His 2015 feature-length documentary about the death of Mark Duggan, The Hard Stop, was nominated in 2017 for a BAFTA in the category "Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer",[5][6] and for two British Independent Film Awards: Best Documentary and Breakthrough Producer.[7][8]
Amponsah's debut feature film, Gassed Up, was announced for launch on Amazon Prime Video in 2023.[9]