Ife Oluwamuyide and Claudia Owusu’s “Ampe: Leap Into The Sky, Black Girl” is a beautifully shot documentary short exploring freedom, play, and sisterhood. The story follows the traditional Ghanaian children’s game, Ampe, in which two people, often times teams battle each other as they jump, clap, and land with their foot facing their opponent. Similar to a game of pool you state your side, instead of solids or stripes, you’re ostraighti or okonto.
While Ampe is in fact a fun children’s game, the film reminds us that it the game, in many ways, is still serious business. Who will be the mother ? How will you add your own style in the process? And of course how will you talk your shit? When playing Ampe, girls can be whatever they want and as “bush as they want”. For a moment in time, there are no expectations for what it means to be a girl and how you must present according to the world around you.
Visually, Ampe has a dreamlike allure and beauty. Throughout the film, the intentional color palette is reflected both in dress and set design set a tone of ease, softness, and at times an ethereal space. The interviews —whether traditional confessional style or the casual home girl round table vibe — one can sense a space of vulnerability and intimacy between filmmaker and participants. You gain victory by either matching your opponents foot or being opposite depending on what side you claimed.
The women profiled in the film are captivating in their movement and creative expression while play. Equally, if not more captivating, are the intentional close up shots lingering in the faces of the girls and women in the film. These moments invite us to carefully and slowly bear witness to each woman.
The film being shot in Accra as well as Columbus, Ohio reminds about the reach and connectivity of black women and the diaspora at large. Ampe is rhythm . Ampe is community. Ampe is joy. Ampe is safety. Ampe is whatever it needs to be for the little black girls we once were and at times still are.