Remembering My Father, the Film Producer
In August 2012, I received a call from my father. We spoke about the Dodgers, the coming election and the Los Angeles heat wave when he casually said, “I’m going to Ghana tomorrow.”
“Uh, what?”
“I’m meeting with an investor for our movie. He owns a gold mine and wants to get in the film business.”
I was accustomed to my father meeting with strange folks all over the world in his never-ending search for film funding. But Ghana? This seemed out of the ordinary.
“Who are you traveling with?”
“Myself. It’s a three-day trip. I’ll be back Monday.”
“Wait,” I said. “What do you know about this guy?”
“He sent me a prospectus via email. His family is in the gold and silver business. He’s legit.”
I quickly Googled “Ghana gold mine scam.” I scrolled through stories about extortion, wire fraud and kidnapping. One article told of an American businessman who was tortured and murdered in the town of Accra.
“Dad, what city in Ghana are you traveling to?”
“It’s called Accra,” he said.
My stomach dropped. I hung up the phone and scoured online travel advisories for Ghana. I called the US State Department and was transferred to a homeland…
