Shadi Abdel Salem
Shadi Abdel Salam was an Egyptian film director, screenwriter and Costume and set designer. Born in Alexandria on 15 March 1930, Shadi graduated from Victoria College, Alexandria, 1948, and then moved to England to study theater arts from 1949 to 1950. He then joined faculty of fine arts in Cairo where he graduated as an architect in 1955.
He worked as assistant to the artistic architect, Ramsis W. Wassef, 1957, and designed the decorations and costumes of some of the most famous historical Egyptian films among which are; Wa Islamah, El-Nasser Salah El-Din, Almaz wa Abdu El Hamouly.Worked as a historical consultant and supervisor of the decoration, costumes and accessories sections of the Polish film (Pharaoh), directed by Kavelorovitch.
Directed the long drama film entitled The Night of Counting the Years (Al-Momiaa), 1968–1969, and received many film awards for this work. Also directed the short drama film entitled El-Falah El-Faseeh (The Eloquent Peasant). Worked as the Director of the Ministry of Culture Center for experimental films, 1970. Wrote the scenario of the long drama film entitled Ikhnatoun and finalized the relevant designs, 1974–1985
Taught at the Cinema Higher Institute of Egypt in the Departments of Decorations, Costumes and Film Direction, 1963–1969. Died on 8 October 1986. —Wikpedia
Hachimiya Ahamada
Born in France in 1976 to parents of Comorian origin, Hachimiya Ahamada is nonetheless a filmmaker of the land. Her camera pointed towards her homeland, the Comoros Archipelago, her favorite themes are identity and memory. In 2008, she directed the drama short, The Ylang Ylang Residence, co-produced by Aurora Films in Paris and Washko Ink in Moroni. The film was screened in some sixty international film festivals, from Cannes to the International Black Film Festival of Montreal, passing through the Women's Film Festival in Chennai, India. In 2009 alone The Ylang Ylang Residence won numerous awards such as the Grand Prize for the Short Film at the Quintessence Festival of Ouidah, the Best Screenplay at the Francophone Festival of Vaulx in Velin, the Jury’s Special Mention at the Cinema of Africa, Asia and Latin America Festival in Milan.
Merzak Allouache
Born in Algiers, Merzak Allouache grew up during the Algerian struggle for independence. He studied filmmaking at Paris’s celebrated IDHEC, and quickly moved on to directing feature films, documentaries, and television programs. Omar Gatlato (1976), his first feature film, set in the neighborhood of Bab el-Oued in Algiers, was such a success that it changed the course of Algerian cinema. The popularity of Omar Gatlato with Algerian audiences demonstrated to the Algerian film industry that its public had an appetite for complex films that dealt with the realities of Algerian contemporary society, opening the door to other films of the same ilk. In 1994 Merzak returned to this same neighborhood to film Bab el-Oued City. The film captured the beginnings of the civil war that was then spreading across Algeria. Bab el-Oued City garnered the International Critics’ Prize at Cannes in 1994, as well as the grand prize at the Arab Film Festival in Paris. During a career that has spanned thirty years, Merzak Allouache’s films continue to examine the complex history that ties France to its former North African colonies, giving us characters full of intelligence and dignity, caught between their French and Algerian identities. Merzak’s other films include Adventures of a Hero/Aventures d’un heros (1978), The Man Who Watched Windows/L’Homme qui regardait les fenêtres (1982), and A Love in Paris/Un amour à Paris (1988). In 1989 he made Following October/L’après-octobre, a documentary about the riots that took place in the suburbs of Paris in 1988.— Harvard Film Archive
Youssef Chahine
Youssef Chahine (born in Alexandria, Egypt, 1926) started studying in a friars’ school, and then turned to English College until the High School Certificate. After one year in the University of Alexandria, he moved to the U.S. and spent two years at the Pasadena Play House, taking courses on film and dramatic arts. After coming back to Egypt, cinematographer Alevise Orfanelli helped him into the film business. His film debut was Baba Amin (1950): one year later, with Ibn el Nil (1951) he was first invited to the Cannes Film festival. In 1970, he was awarded a Golden Tanit at the Carthage Festival. With Le moineau (1973), he directed the first Egypt-Algeria co-production. He won a Silver Bear in Berlin for Iskanderija… lih? (1978), the first installment in what proved to be an autobiographic trilogy, completed with adduta misrija (1982) and Iskanderija, kaman oue kaman (1990).
In 1992, Jacques Lassalle proposed him to stage a piece of his choice for Comédie Française: Chahine chose to adapt Albert Camus’ “Caligula,” which proved hugely successful. The same year he started writing Al-mohager (1994), a story inspired by the Biblical character of Joseph, son of Jacob. This had long been a dream-project, and he finally got to shoot it in 1994. In 1997, 46 years and 5 invitations later, he was again selected Hors Competition in Cannes with Al-massir (1997). —IMDb
Yamina Bachir
Yamina Bachir-Chouikh began her film career as assistant editor in the early 1970s. Her career then evolved gradually. She first became editor and worked on many Algerian films and documentaries Algerians, working with directors like Touita Okasha, Lagta Abdelkader, Ahmed Rachedi or her husband Mohamed Chouikh. As well as working as an editor she wrote several screenplays. In 1976, she collaborated with Merzak Allouache on his first feature Omar Gatlato and in1982 she wrote the screenplay for Sandy Wind directed by Mohamed Lakhdar Hamina .
In 1996, she wrote the screenplay for Rachida managing to turn to turn it into her first feature film five years later. manages to turn it five years later. For her first feature film as director, Yamina Bachir-Chouikh did not choose an easy subject. Rachida evokes the terror experienced by the people of Algeria in the 1990s through the destiny of a young 20 year old woman who is a victim of an attack leaving her to take refuge in the countryside.
Sherif El Bendary
Sherif el Bendary was born in Cairo in 1978. Graduated from the Applied Arts college in 2001, and worked as a textile engineer. He participated in many theatrical productions at the university theatre as well as many collective art exhibitions. He studied film directing at the Higher Institue of Cinema, Egypt in 2002, and worked as assistant director for many commercial feature films in Egypt. Later on he directed several short films including ‘6 Girls…’, his first documentary film, which was awarded Best Documentary, Student Film Festival of Goethe Institute, 2006. His first short feature “Rise And Shine” won the Jury Award at National Film Festival, Egypt, 2006. —Sydney Arab Film Festival.
Mahamat Saleh Haroun
Born in Chad in 1961, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun left the country during the civil war of the 1980s and relocated to France, by way of Cameroon. There he worked as a journalist before studying at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma in Paris. He is now more than a dozen years into his career as a filmmaker, shooting primarily in Chad. This career has so far produced three feature films and a number of shorts that have made Haroun one of the leading lights in African cinema. He excels at spinning narratives that begin with easily recognizable situations – usually the loss of a parent – and expand to encompass allegorical and political reflection on the state of Chadian society. Often calm on the surface, Haroun’s filmmaking belies this calm with simmering strains of anger and melancholy. While occasionally compared to the work of Iranian directors Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, perhaps because of their deceptively quiet surfaces, Haroun’s films recognizably belong to an African tradition of filmmaking stretching from Ousmane Sembene to Abderrahmane Sissako that considers the place of cinema in a postcolonial Africa and, by extension, in a postcolonial world. —filmstudycenter.org
Haile Gerima
Born in Gonder, Ethiopia in 1946, Haile Gerima is the fourth child of ten children.
His father was a writer and his mother a teacher. As a youth Gerima performed in his father's theater troupe, which presented original and often historical drama, always submersed in the genuine culture of Ethiopia.Gerima came to the U.S. in 1967 to study at the Goodman School of Drama. He slowly realized that "with cinema I could control many more things than the theatre." Gerima went on to receive his MFA from UCLA in 1976 and to produce several films. Hour Glass, and Child of Resistance were his first films, Bushmama and Harvest 3,000 Years followed, all produced during his years at UCLA.
Gaston Kabore
Kabore started out as a history student at the Centre d’Etudes Superieures d’Histoire d’Ouagadougou and continued his studies in Paris where he received an MA. During his studies he became interested in how Africa was portrayed abroad, which then led him, in 1974, to study cinematography at the Ecole Superieure d’Etudes Cinematographiques. Further inspiration came upon viewing Ousmane Sembene’s Xala, which he saw as an example of how film could be used to express African culture. After returning to Africa, Kabore was made director of the Centre National du Cinema and taught at the Institut African d’Education Cinematographique. Along with students under his direction there he made his first film, ‘Je Reviens De Bokin’ (I Come From Bokin).
Kabore went on to produce practical documentaries such as 1978’s, ‘Stockez et conservez les grains’ (Store and Conserve the Grain), which focused on agrarian concerns. Another kind of documentary he made in this early period, ‘Regard sur le VI’eme FESPACO’ (A Look at the 6th FESPACO) evidenced his concern for and promotion of African film. Kabore’s first feature, Wend Kuuni (1982) was a breakthrough for African cinema notable for the way it translated African oral tradition to the screen. Next, Kabore returned to address the issues surrounding African cinema with a documentary, ‘Props sur le cinema’ (Reflections on the cinema) (1986). The short film featured two significant African directors, ‘Souleymane Cisse’ from Mali and Mauritania born Med Hondo discussing the problems facing filmmakers on the continent. He followed this with his second feature, Zan Boko (1988) which tells the story of a wealthy businessman who takes away ancestral land from a poor village peasant in order to build a swimming pool. The film focuses not only on the conflict of class struggle but also that of tradition and modernity in postcolonial civilization.
Before his next feature Kabore again returned with a short documentary, Madame Hado (1991), about Mrs. Hado, a celebrated Burkinabe singer and dancer. Kabore was then invited to contribute to the BBC’s ‘Developing Stories’, a series of six films by talented filmmakers from the developing world focusing on environmental and developmental issues. He offered Rabi (1993), which won the first prize for young people’s films at the Okomedia International Ecological Film Festival. Another mark of Kabore’s international recognition was his participation in the film, Lumière and Company (1995) in which 40 directors from around the world were asked to make a short film with the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumiere Brothers. His most recent feature Buud Yam (1997) was the 1997 grand-prize winner of the FESPACO. —IMDb
Jean Paul Ngassa
The history of Cameroonian cinema starts in Paris with a documentary by Jean-Paul Ngassa covering the situation of Cameroonian students in France, Aventure en France (1962). This same topic inspired Thérèse Sita Bella, the director of Tom-Tom in Paris (1963). On return to his country, Ngassa started working for the State service producing propaganda films, such as the 1965 film La Grande Case Bamiléké and the 1970 documentary Une nation est née. —Cameroon Online
Idrissa Ouedraogo
Idrissa Ouedraogo is one of Africa’s most prolific filmmakers. His early films are remakable in their ability to communicate through imagery. Poko, Les Ecuelles (The Wooden Bowls), Les Funerailles du Larle Naba (The Funeral of Larle Narba), Ouagadougou, Ouga deux roues (Ouagadougou, Ouga Two Wheels), and Issa le tisserand (Issa the Weaver) appeal to a multi-lingual audience without using dialogue or voice-over narration. Although his subsequent films incorporate dialogue, Ouedraogo’s talent for creating meaning with images remains a hallmark of his work.
Ouedraogo’s first commercial success, Yaaba (Grandmother), narrates the story of two young children who befriend an old woman wrongly accused of malevolent sorcery. This film exemplifies Ouedraogo’s interest in the multiple ramifications of individual choices. It also demonstrates Ouedraogo’s skill at adapting the poetics of African oral tales to contemporary cinema. Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike notes that Ouedraogo “fuses the neorealist penchant for eliciting polished performance from nonprofessionals with the African narrative tradition of the griot… as in the oral tradition, a story’s interest and attraction for an audience depend upon how creatively a storyteller embellishes what he has heard or taken from his own experience.” Ouedraogo’s humor, wit, and keen sense of drama in Yaaba earned him international acclaim as an exceptional storyteller and filmmaker.
Ouedraogo’s second big success was Tilai (The Law). At the film’s beginning, the protagonist, Saga, leaves his village. His life away from home is left out of the narrative, which speaks to Ouedraogo’s commitment to rural life. Saga returns to find that his father has married the woman he loves, Nogma. Nogma and Saga decide to disobey the law and escape to another village. Saga’s brother, Kougri, also refuses to follow his father’s order to punish Saga with death. Ouedraogo sympathizes with young villagers’ desires for change, but treats his elder characters with sensitivity. The film depicts the injustices of certain traditional laws in addition to the difficulties involved in defying them. At the same time, Ouedraogo deeply respects his country’s cultures, and sides with their battles for self-preservation.
Although Ouedraogo often critiques strict traditional laws, his love for his African heritage is clear in his films. His appreciation for African traditional life is expressed poignantly in Un cri du coeur (A Cry from the Heart). Here, a young boy named Moctar moves from his village in order to live with his middle-class parents, who have immigrated to France. Pained by his nostalgia for his village, and especially for his grandfather, Moctar has difficulty adjusting. When he has visions of a hyena on the streets, he alarms his parents, who hoped that France would provide Moctar with better opportunities. Un cri du coeur, like numerous African literary works, examines the affection shared between the older African generation and their grandchildren. When Moctar’s hyena, a strong figure in African folklore, appears for the last time, it takes the form of his dear grandfather.
In the context of African cinema, Ouedraogo’s films have been especially successful. He is committed to filming the specific realities of his home country, yet his themes of fidelity, resistance, transformation, and the recovery of traditions have touched diverse, world-wide audiences. —Film Reference
Laurent Salgues
Laurent Salgues was born in France on September 13th 1967. After a master’s in audiovisual studies at l'École Supérieure d'Audiovisuel (ESAV) in Toulouse, he perfected his screenplay writing at the Conservatoire Européen d'Ecriture Audiovisuelle (CEEA) and at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). From 1992 to 1996, he directed three short subjects (“Eternité moins cinq”, “Camilio” and “La femme à l’ombrelle”). Since 2003, he has been a screenplay writer for television and film. “Rêves de poussière” is his first full-length feature film. -
Jamie Uys
He made his debut as a film director in 1951 with the Afrikaans-language film Daar doer in die bosveld. He directed 24 films in total.
Uys received the 1981 Grand Prix at the Festival International du Film de Comedy Vevey for The Gods Must Be Crazy, and in 1974 he received the Hollywood Foreign Press Association award for best documentary for Beautiful People.
The two Beautiful People films were documentaries about the plant and animal life in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, especially desert creatures. A highlight of the film included a scene with elephants, warthogs, monkeys and other animals staggering around after eating rotten, fermented marula fruit.
Jamie Uys' biggest and best known movie was The Gods Must Be Crazy. In this movie he featured a bushman called N!xau in the lead role. This was a comedy in which a Coke bottle that was thrown out of an aeroplane, fell in the Kalahari Desert and was found by the San tribe. As this was the only "modern" object in their world, it led to strife and it was decided that the bottle had to be returned to the Gods, who must have sent it in the first place. The character played by N!xau was given the task to return it. The movie generated massive word-of-mouth success in America, Japan, Europe, and other territories, with the movie rights initially being sold to 45 countries.[1]It spawned a less successful sequel, The Gods Must Be Crazy II.
Uys earlier made another movie set substantially in the Kalahari Desert. This is Lost in the Desert, and tells the story of 8-year-old Dirkie Hayes' efforts to survive in the desert after surviving a plane crash, whilst his father Anton mounts increasingly desperate efforts to find him. As well as directing the movie, Jamie Uys also played the part of Anton, and his son Wynand Uys played the part of Dirkie. Some early sources and credits name the director and actor of Anton's part as Jamie Hayes, and name Wynand Uys as Dirkie Hayes; but the relatively recent DVD release of the movie is attributed to their real names.
Uys' other well-known movie was Funny People in 1977, which was a comedy in the same genre as Candid Camera in the U.S., putting unsuspecting people in embarrassing positions. These included a talking postbox, with the voice of a man claiming to be trapped inside, who asks a passer-by for help. When the passer-by returns with his friends, the 'talking' postbox is silent, and his friends accuse him of being drunk. The sequel, Funny People II was released in 1983, and features a young Arnold Vosloo, who has since found fame in Hollywood.
