Born and raised in
London, England, Amponsah is of Ghanaian parentage. 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). Since graduating in 2000 from the NFTS, he has taught documentary filmmaking there and at the
Met Film School. His 2015 feature-length documentary
The Hard Stop, about the
death of Mark Duggan, was nominated in 2017 for a
BAFTA in the category
"Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer", and for two
British Independent Film Awards: Best Documentary and Breakthrough Producer. Amponsah's debut drama feature film,
Gassed Up was announced for launch on
Amazon Prime Video in 2023.
Gassed Up – which tells the story of a London youth who gets mixed up with a rampaging gang of moped thieves – was described in
The Guardian as "A
Scorsese-like thrill ride", having a UK nationwide cinema release in February 2024 and subsequently playing on Amazon Prime. ==Documentaries==