{{short description|Ghanaian film producer}} {{Infobox person | name = Sam Aryeetey | birth_name = Sam Greatorex Aryeetey | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|mf=yes|1929|08|23}} | birth_place = Accra, Ghana, | years active = | occupation = {{Flatlist | * film producer * film director * editor * writer }} | label_name = }}

'''Sam Greatorex Aryeetey''' (born 23 August 1929<ref name="Uwechue1991">{{cite book|author=Raph Uwechue|title=Africa Who's who|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9EAOAQAAMAAJ|year=1991|publisher=Africa Journal Limited|isbn=978-0-903274-17-3|page=220}}</ref> or 1927<ref name="loc">{{cite web|url=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85042831.html|title=Aryeetey, Sam, 1927- - LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies &#124; Library of Congress|website=id.loc.gov|accessdate=2019-11-17}}</ref>) is a Ghanaian film producer, film director and writer. He is often credited as the director of the first Ghanaian feature film, ''No Tears for Ananse''.<ref name="Aitken2016">{{cite book|author=Ian Aitken|title=Colonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GDVWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA59|year=2016|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-1-4744-0721-2|page=59}}</ref>

==Life== Sam Aryeetey was born August 23, 1929, in Accra. He was educated at Accra Methodist Boys' School and Achimota School.<ref name="Uwechue1991"/> Among the first students at an Accra film training school for West Africans established by the Colonial Film Unit in 1948, Sam Aryeetey joined the new Gold Coast Film Unit under Sean Graham.<ref name="Garritano2013">{{cite book|author=Carmela Garritano|title=African Video Movies and Global Desires: A Ghanaian History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Smqfl7gk3wcC&pg=PA48|date=15 February 2013|publisher=Ohio University Press|isbn=978-0-89680-484-5|pages=48–}}</ref> In 1952 he moved to work as an editor in England.<ref name=Rice>Tom Rice, [http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/production-company/gold-coast-film-unit Gold Coast Film Unit], ‘’Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire’’, June 2010.</ref>

In 1963, Sam Aryeetey returned to Ghana to work for the Ghana Film Industry Corporation (GFIC).<ref>''Ghana Year Book'', 1978, p.245.</ref> ''No Tears for Ananse'', written and directed by Aryeetey, was the first GFIC production. It was based on Joe de Graft's play ''Ananse and the Gum Man'', a story about the trickster Ananse.<ref name="Garritano2013"/>

In 1969, Sam Aryeetey became managing director of the GIFC. Manthia Diawara has argued that, by choosing to employ Europeans rather than Africans to “make films for Ghana”.

==Works==

===Films=== * (as editor) ''I Will Speak English'', 1954 * (as editor) ''Mr. Mensah Builds a House'', 1955 * (as editor) ''The Welfare of Youth'', Editor * (as editor) ''Sporting Life'', 1958 * (as producer) ''Hamile the Tongo Hamlet'', 1964 * (as director) ''No Tears for Ananse'', 1965 or 1968 * (as writer) ''The African Deal'', 1973

===Books=== * ‘’Harvest of Love’’, 1984 * ‘’Other Side of Town’’, 1986 * ‘’Home at Last’’, 1996

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|0038173}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20191011024207/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2baacc80fa ''Sam Aryeetey''] at the British Film Institute{{better source needed|reason=Help request: a live link can be searched for at https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/search/expert - if available, replace the archive URL with the live link. Or if none found, remove this 'better source needed' template. | date=October 2023}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Aryeetey, Sam}} Category:1920s births Category:Ghanaian film directors Category:Ghanaian screenwriters Category:Living people Category:Mass media people from Accra