Meet the Filmmakers
<< Film Festival Main Page
Wanjiru Kinyanui
| Film : Africa is a Woman’s Name |
 |
Kenyan veteran filmmaker Wanjiru Kinyanjui was a writer, poet and journalist before studying screenwriting and directing in Germany. A seasoned producer, director, screenwriter Wanjiru Kinyanjui has made a number of films (documentaries, fiction and children programmes) for German and Kenyan television in addition to her award-winning first feature The Battle of the Sacred Tree (1994) and Africa is a Woman’s Name. |
Taghreed Elsanhouri (in attendance)
| Film : All About Darfur, Mother Unknown |
 |
British based Sudanese born documentary filmmaker, Taghreed Elsanhouri, began her career in broadcast news and entertainment television. She always knew she was going to be a story teller, and chose film as her medium when suffering from writer’s block. The award-winning All about Darfur is her directorial debut. Her second film Orphans of Mygoma (2008), was commissioned by Al Jazeera International for their Witness documentary strand, and in 2009 she completed Mother Unknown. Continuing the filmic exploration of her native Sudan she has written a feature screenplay, Khartoun Story, selected by the Berlin Talent Campus for development. |
Djamila Sahraoui (in attendance)
| Film : Barakat! |
 |
Algerian born Djamila Sahraoui’s filmography includes both short films and documentaries; among them a series of documentaries in which Sahraoui explores Algeria and the battles for national and gender liberation while paying tribute to the resilience and the spirit of her compatriots. In 1997 Djamila Sahraoui was awarded the Villa Médicis Hors les Murs prize and in 2007, Barakat! won numerous awards at Fespaco, i.a. for Best First Work and Best Screen play, as well as Best Arab Film at the Dubai International Film Festival. Other prestigious film festivals that have screened Djamila Sahraoui’s films are Berlin International Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival and Cairo International Film Festival. Barakat! is Sahraoui’s first feature film. |
Monique Mbeka Phoba (in attendance)
| Film : Between The Cup And The Election |
 |
Zimbabwean born Tsitsi Dangarembga had her first taste of success with her novel ‘Nervous Conditions’ which won the African section of the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Dangarembga studied film in Berlin where she produced several films including a documentary for German television. Her film Everyone’s Child has been shown worldwide. |
Catherine Meyburgh (in attendance)
| Film : Kentridge and Dumas in Conversation |
 |
Catherine Meyburgh has worked in film and television for more than twenty years. She has been involved in the training of young film editors and has worked on projects concerned with the environment, health matters, women’s issues, xenophobia and other subjects. She has directed documentary and short films including Alan Paton’s Beloved Country and The Clay Ox. Her work in television includes the drama series Yizo Yizo and Soul City and the feature films Sophiatown, Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright and Heartlines. She edited and produced the BBC/SABC co-production The Glow of White Women, amongst others. |
Fanta Régina Nacro (in attendance)
| Film : Night of Truth |
 |
Fanta Régina Nacro, Burkina Faso’s first woman filmmaker, followed in the footsteps of other legendary Burkinabe filmmakers when she enrolled at Ouagadougou Film School. She pursued further cinema studies in Paris before starting her own production company Les Films du Défi (Defiance Films) in 1993. Her award winning films address realities facing her country and her continent and are concerned with the complex relationship between modernity and tradition. They have been screened at prestigious festivals such as Fespaco, Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and Sundance. |
Fazila Wahab (in attendance)
| Film : Karoo |
 |
Fazila Wahab joined the in-house production unit of a Johannesburg based advertising agency which led to a natural migration into the television industry as a full time producer/director. In 2005 she started Mirage Film and Television Productions with Oliver Kohl. Karoo is released through the filmmakers’ production company Kaugoomi, a brand dedicated to developing out-of-the-box and extra-ordinary stories. |
Arice Siapi (in attendance)
| Film : Riskou - The Sharing of Cow |
 |
The newly appointed director of Ngaoundéré International Film Festival in Cameroon is a former student of law who made her first film He Who Laugh Last Will Last the Longest, in the late 1980ies. Subsequently she has gained extensive experience writing, producing and directing documentary as well as fiction. In 2003 she mounted her own production company, Onore Production. |
Rumbi Katedza (in attendance)
| Film : Asylum, Tariro |
 |
Rumbi Katedza has worked extensively in film and video in Southern Africa for over a decade. Between 2004 and 2006 she served as Festival Director of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival and was instrumental in expanding the festival and its outreach programs to a wider audience. Rumbi Katedza is an award-winning writer. Her film credits include Danai, for which she was nominated Best Director at the National Arts Merit Awards, and the award-winning Asylum. |
Ingrid Sinclair
| Film : Africa is a Woman’s Name |
| |
This Zimbabwean director/producer has played an important role in building an independent Zimbabwean cinema industry and is regarded by many as part of the African Renaissance after her first feature film Flame (1996) about the role of women in the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. Sinclair also dealt with the daily drama of politics, history and culture in her award-winning documentary Birds from Another World (1991). |
Bridget Pickering (in attendance)
| Film : Africa is a Woman’s Name |
| |
Bridget Pickering (in attendance)
The Namibian born producer is an industry veteran who has produced, co-produced and directed over 20 films, among them Hotel Rwanda (2004). She started her film career at Universal Pictures in New York before forming On Land Productions. Bridget has directed documentaries and short films including Uno’s World, part of the Mama Africa series, and the award-winning documentary Dreams of a Good Life. Bridget recently produced two of SABC's top audience rated drama series, Redemption and uGugu no Andile. |
Maria Joao Ganga (in attendance)
| Film : Hollow City |
 |
Maria João Ganga was born in Huambo, Angola, in 1964. She studied filmmaking at L'école Superieure Libre d'etudes Cinematographiques (ESEC) in Paris. She has served as an assistant director on several documentaries, including Rostov-Luanda by Abderrahmane Sissako, and has also written and directed for theatre. Hollow City is her first feature film. |
Jyoti Mistry (in attendance)
| Film : The Bull on the Roof |
| |
Jyoti Mistry is a filmmaker and associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Arts. Mistry’s filmography includes short films and documentaries that are made in the explorative experimental approach that characterizes her films. She has taught at New York University, University of Vienna and Arcadia Polytechnic in Helsinki. |
Musola Catherine Kaseketi (in attendance)
| Film : Suwi |
| |
Musola Cathrine Kaseketi studied Theatre Art Management and Acting in Zimbabwe before graduating from the Newtown Film and Television School. Before producing, directing and writing her first feature, Suwi, she worked in various capacities in film and TV, most notably as the director of Zambia’s first soap opera Kabana and as director/writer of the documentaries Mapalo and Making a Difference in Life. Musola is the founder of Vilole Images Productions and the Vilole Images Film Festival. She has been running free basic video training programs with a vision of setting up a local film and television school. |
Karen Slater (in attendance)
| Film : 50 Years of Love |
 |
This South African producer, director and cinematographer worked for the leading wild life drama production company, Londolozi Productions for nearly a decade making wildlife and cultural documentaries before starting Durga Shakti Films. She has produced and directed numerous films that have been screened at film festivals worldwide, including Sundance Film Festival, Hot Docs, Berlin International Festival. A skilled cinematographer Karen Slater has worked with many independent directors and currently teaches filmmaking at Big Fish Multi-media College. Among her awards are four Avanti Awards, the Trailblazer Award atMIPDOC, Cannes 2008 for creative and innovative work in documentaries. |
Hawa Essuman (in attendance)
| Film : Soul Boy |
| |
Hawa Essuman shares her working life between film and television, directing, writing and producing. Soul Boy is her first feature and is a co-operation with the German director Tom Tykwer, who runs a social project training young film professionals in Kenya. In 2008, Essuman directed the television drama Makutano Junction. She is currently working on two feature films, The Lift and the Question of Being Selfish. |
Shirley Frimpong Manso
| Film : A Sting in a Tale |
 |
Shirley Frimpong Manso is an award winning movie producer/writer/director emerging as the biggest force to reckon with in Ghanaian cinema. She is the CEO of Sparrow Productions and a former radio personality. Talented and highly ambitious, Shirley seeks to raise the standard of film production in Ghana and Africa by telling progressive African stories as seen through the eyes of Africans. She won the ‘Best Best Director’ at the African Movie Academy Awards 2010. Shirley’s acclaimed works include, Life And Living It, Scorned, The Perfect Picture and Check Mate. |
Marie Ka (in attendance)
| Film : Didi and Gigi |
| |
Born in Senegal, Marie developed a passion for movies from a very early age. She studied film in France at Sorbonne University and later in the USA. Marie founded her production company, Picture Box, in Dakar, Senegal. She has made children's programmes, shorts and features and is greatly influenced by her interest in women and children. |
Jenna Bass (in attendance)
| Film : The Tunnel |
 |
South African director and writer, Jenna Bass, is a graduate of AFDA film school. At 23 years old she has worked as a music video director, cinematographer, band photographer and magician. Jenna’s upcoming feature project, Tok Tokkie, was selected as one of 12 African features for the Durban FilmMart 2010, where it was awarded the Hubert Bals Fund Award for Most Promising Project. |
Isabel Noronha (in attendance)
| Film : Ngwenya, the Crocodile |
 |
Born in Maputo, Mozambique, Isabel Noronha began her career in filmmaking in 1984, when she worked at the National Film Institute. From there she became a leading member of Coopimagem, Mozambique’s first independent film production company. Isabel was one of the creator’s of the Mozambican Film Association. Amongst the many films she has made are Mothers of the Earth (1993), Well Guarded Dreams (2004) and Maciene-Beyond the Dream (2009). In 2009 Isabel received an honor for her work at CINEPORT. |
Tapiwa Chipfupa
|
In this section
|
