With Films in the Festival

Lisa Cortes- Executive Producer of the Academy Award winning and Oscar nominated film ‘Precious’ - (based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire).which also won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Sundance (2009). She has worked with actors such as Helen Mirren, Halle Berry, Cuba Gooding Jr., Mo’Nique, Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon- Levitt, Paula Patton and Gabourey Sidibe. Lisa Cortés has had a rich and varied career in entertainment, working with such groundbreaking companies as Def Jam Records, Rush Artist Management and Lee Daniels Entertainment. She is known for producing films with difficult and provocative themes, her passion and strength lies in identifying, and then giving light to expressive voices not often heard, and stories not often told. 

Jane Murango-Munene - a film producer and director and the Managing Director of CineArts Afrika based in Nairobi, Kenya with experience spanning over two decades. Her latest production, Monica Wangu Wamwere – The Unbroken Spirit, won First Prize, Best Documentary at FESPACO 2011 – Ouagadougou.

Jasmina Metwaly - a visual artist Born in Warsaw, Poland grew up and based in Warsaw and Cairo, Egypt. In 2009 she won the Open prize for video painting for her video Crucifixion in the summer of 2010. Metwaly is currently on a series of videos for the Philosophy Festival Hay-on-Wye in June 2011.

Ingrid Martens - Director: Africa Shafted- Under One Roof. She won the CNN African Journalist Health category Award in 2001. In 2003 she started her own company I’M Original Productions.

Shannon Walsh’s Film exposes some politics and America oil exploits?

Claire Aguilar - (Vice President of Programming) oversees all aspects of program initiatives, including programming strategy, funding calls, peer panel review and funding recommendations. She commissions programming from U.S. independent producers and from international producers for ITVS’s International Media Development Fund, and co-curates Independent Lens, a series of independently produced programs on PBS

Mahen Bonetti is the founder and Executive Director of the New York African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) , a non-profit arts organization founded in 1990.  AFF showcases works of African filmmakers and develops ways to share the vision and culture of African film with American and international audiences.

Dora Bouchoucha – founded the Carthage Film Festival Projects’ workshop in 1992, the SUD ECRITURE workshops in 1997, which she has been running since. She is a permanent member of the International Rotterdam Festival CineMart Board and is also consultant for Arab and African films for the selection board of Venice Film Festival. In 2010, she was appointed head of Fonds Sud. She is head of Carthage Film Festival since 2008. Dora has produced and co-produced several Tunisian and foreign documentaries, short and feature films which have been selected at Venice, Cannes and Berlin.

Beadie Finzi - Founding Director CHANNEL 4 BRITDOC FOUNDATION . She was also festival director of the Britdoc Festival. She is also the producer of ‘Unknown White Male’, a feature documentary about a young amnesiac rediscovering his life which was Oscar shortlisted in 2006. She directed ‘The Hunger Season’ for More4, NHK and YLE. In 2009 she completed ‘Only When I Dance’, which premiered at Tribeca FIlm Festival and played at Sheffield Doc/Fest 09.

Jihan el-Tahri - Jihan el-Tahri is an Egyptian-born, French filmmaker, author and news correspondent, award-winning author and documentary producer of political Films like; ‘Cuba an African Odyssey’, Behind the Rainbow’etc. She Authored books and reported on political conflicts in the Middle East and Africa for companies like, US News & World Report, the Washington Post, The Financial Time (London), US News & World Report, the Sunday Times (London) and Reuters news agency.

Judy Kibingeown Seven, an independent production house based in Nairobi Kenya. My first film Dangerous Affair was a contemporary film set in the heart of middle class Nairobi and is credited by some as having kicked off the wave of contemporary filmmaking in Kenya.

Taghreed Elsanhouri - began her career in broadcast news and entertainment television. She is now an independent film maker with two feature documentaries under her belt (‘All about Darfur’ and ‘Mother Unknown’), Her Television projects include a production commissioned by Aljazeera International and she is also a consultant and writer for the development sector.  Her films have won Awards of Commendation from the American Anthropological Association, the Chair Person’s prize at the Zanzibar International Film Festival, Unicef Child Rights Award,  and selected at numerous film festivals including the Toronto international Film Festival 2005, premiered at, nominated for the Arab Muhr award at the Dubai film festival 2009.

Fuelled by a passion for being creative, Amirah’s artistic endeavors range from short films to dj-ing and wall murals to sculptures. Born and brought up in Nairobi, spent her teenage years in Dubai and considers her ongoing romance with crazy cities and her mixed lineage as influences for most of her films, photography and drawings, as well as her choice to consider everywhere and nowhere home.