distinguished woman of african cinema jury

MAIN COMPETITION
Reynaud Isabelle
Main Competition
Isabelle Reynaud is a stage
and film director, lecturer,
teacher, project manager,
founder and artistic director
of CARBON Theater, Film
and Installation. She has
received several awards for
her work with theatre, film
and installations. From 1992
- 2013 she produced and
directed several films,
installations and plays for both large professional stages
and at smaller seat venues. She has been moving from the
Magic Realism theatre to documentary theater, installations
and films depicting wide ranging themes including
women’s rights. In addition to her artistic work, Isabelle
has lectured, supervised and taught project management,
acting, performance arts methods, fundraising, theatre
history and cultural understanding at several Danish
Folk High Schools, Aarhus University, The American
University in Cairo, ITI and Festival of Kedja. She was
educated at the University of München and Staatstheater
Hannover among other institutions.
Sibanda Tinashe
Main Competition
Tinashe Ruvimbo Violette
Sibanda is a journalist by
profession and holds a
National. Diploma In Mass
Communication And Media
Studies. Tinashe is currently
working for Alpha Media
Holdings and was part of the
pioneer group of staffers that
started News Day newspaper.
She is an Entertainment, Arts
and Lifestyle writer, and has been in the industry since
2009. She is a devout Christian and the founder of a Blog
titled, Women Beloved of God and through her blog she
reaches out to a lot of women as well as men that are
willing to understand and support the girl child.
Bullen, Pauline E. Dr
Main Competition
Born in Guyana, the only English
speaking country in South
America and one of Caribbean
culture, Dr. Pauline Bullen grew
up in Toronto, Canada where she
received her PhD in Sociology
and Equity Studies from the
University of Toronto. She has
lectured at York University in
Toronto, City University of New
York and is currently lecturing
in the Women and Gender Studies Program at the Women’s
University in Africa.
Chirasha Mbizvo
Main Competition
Mbizo
Chirasha
is
an
internationally
acclaimed
Performance
poet,
Writer,
Creative /Literary Projects
Specialist, an Advocate of
Girl Child Voices and Literacy
Development. He is the
Founder and Projects Curator
of a multiple Community,
Literary, and Grassroots Projects
including Girl Child Creativity
Project, Girl Child Voices Fiesta, Urban Colleges Writers
Prize, and Young Writers Caravan. Mbizo Chirasha has worked
with NGOS and other institutions as an Interventionist [using
creative arts as models of community education, information
dissemination and dialogue]. He also works as a Proof Reader/
Editor, Poet/Writer in Residences for Institutions, Media
Relations Strategist for projects, Girl Child Voices/Talent
Advocate, Literacy Development Activist and Creative/Literary
Projects Advisor/Specialist.
Hagen Sheri
Main Competition
Sheri Hagen, born in Lagos,
Nigeria and grew up in Hamburg,
studied and graduated from
the Stage School of Dance and
Drama in Hamburg, as well as in
the Studio Theater an der Wien.
Besides numerous works in
film and television (“The Lives
of Others”, “Baal”, “Tatort”,
“Sperling”), she has performed
in diverse theater productions in
Berlin, Bremen, and Munich. In 2007, Sheri Hagen released her
own production - “Stella and the Stork”, a children’s film that
ran as a success in several film festivals. “At Second Glance” is
Sheri Hagen’s debut feature film that was accomplished as her
own production in 2012.
BEST SOUND (ZIMBABWEAN FILM)
Chris Garatsa
Chris has worked for ZBC
and Mighty Movies. Chris
is currently freelancing and
is at the moment engaged
with Super Sport. He has
varied experience in the
media having worked with
news channels that include
CCTV, France 24,SABC
and ZDF(Germany) doing
news, documentaries, film,
studio productions and live
television broadcasting.
Chris has worked with the likes of Tsitsi Dangarembga
in (film and documentary) productions. He worked on a
documentary for Harpo Production on Tererai Trent which
was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show among many
other documentaries.
Kevin Hansen
Kevin Hanssen and his
friends formed their own
theatre company: Over the
Edge Theatre Company
and went on to tour three
continents over a period of 10
years. Over the Edge won two
‘Spirit of the Fringe’ awards at
the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
in Scotland. They were
also nominated for ‘Acting
Excellence in an Ensemble’
at the same festival by the
prestigious Stage newspaper, for their performance of
self-penned Born African.For two years in London he
worked with Strathmore Publishing in audio production,
where he learnt the art of producing and editing audio
books. Highlights included compiling Monty Python’s
autobiography for three months and writing a sketch
for Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam. Coming back to
Zimbabwe in 2006, Kevin ploughed himself back into the
local theatre and film scene. Since then he has produced,
acted in and directed numerous productions, including a
lead role in FREESTATE, a short film that has travelled
the world over the last couple of years, as well as local
TV and video productions. Kevin continues to work as an
actor, director, writer, musician, sound engineer, graphic
designer and teacher in Zimbabwe.
BEST AFRICAN FILM, BEST SADC AND
BEST ZIMBABWEAN FILM
Mapurisana Terrence
purisana is an award-winning
journalist with more than 25 years of
television, radio and print reporting
experience. Terrence currently holds
the position of Arts and Features
Correspondent
at
Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)
News and Current Affairs. He also
presents various programs as a
continuity announcer and presenter
on SFM radio. Terrence was
appointed as ZBC Arts Editor in
2002 and promoted to Arts and
features Correspondent in 2006. Before joining ZBC, Mapurisana
reported, wrote columns and edited various publications and newspapers
including The Sunday Mail, The Herald, Parade Magazine, The Club
Magazine, Look and Listen, The Zimbabwe Engineer, The Insurance.
Mudzimu Lazarus
Lazarus Mudzimu, a former ZBC
cameraperson and South African
Company
Southern
Lighting
technician
has
varied
work
experience in the film, arts and
entertainment industry. He has a
number of films to his credit both
as an actor and a technician that
include Nyaminyami (River Gods),
Yellow Card, Kini & Adams and
Flame. Lazarus Mudzimu owns
L&L Productions as well as being a
co-owner/Director of Stage-Con
(Pvt) Ltd. Both companies provide sound and lighting equipment,
stage and trussing equipment and standby generators to the film and
entertainment industry.
Sylvia Vassilatos
Sylvia is a Zimbabwean broadcast
journalist and filmmaker with over
30 years experience acquired from
working in different capacities in the
media and entertainment industry.
She has worked as a radio news
presenter and television producer
for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation before moving into
independent film production. Sylvia
is a writer, spoken word poet and
also writes song lyrics for several
notable local musicians and
performing artists in Zimbabwe. Sylvia is passionate about visual arts
and comes into the festival with vast practical knowledge and experience
of Zimbabwe’s filmscape.
BEST ZIMBABWEAN DOCUMENTARY
AND
BEST INTERNATIONAL
DOCUMENTARY
Doumbe Veronique
Doumbe is an awardwinning
editor
who
collaborates with a variety
of independent filmmakers,
she also produces and directs
motion pictures through
her production company
Ndolo Films. Last year, she
coproduced the Rwandan
production ‘Imbabazi: The
Pardon’, directed by Joel
Karekezi, with Karekezi Film
Production.
Early this year, she directed the pilot of a web series
produced by Jersey Six Production, llc called “Quarterlife
Crisis”. “Woman to Woman” released in 2013 is a
conversation with New York mothers and daughters
co-directed with daughter, Malika Franklin. . Doumbe
served on the Board of New York Women in Film and TV
(NYWIFT) as Director/membership (2009-2012).
McLaren Jamie Patricia
Jamie was born and grew up
in Harare, Zimababwe. She
holds a Bachelor of Fine
Arts (Honours) degree in
Acting from the University
of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Jamie is the Artistic Director
of the Theatre Company
(Under the Affluence) which
is based in Harare. The
company aims to produce
high
quality,
thought
provoking theatre.
She has also worked as the Artistic Director of the
Windsor Feminist Theatre in Canada, and currently
holds the position of Head of the Drama Department at
Chisipite Senior School in Harare. Her Theatre Production
experience includes work in areas such as Acting,
Directing, Producing, Stage Management, Lighting
Design, Continuity and Production Secretary. He credits
in film include Production Management for the short film
Freestate (Dir. Martha Ferguson), Television Presenter
on This is Life for (Joy Television, Harare and a role in
Akodzera Ndiani (Zimbabwe Short Film Festival), Dir.
Yeukai Ndarimi.
Mano Winston, Dr
Dr Winston Mano is a
Reader and a member of the
University of Westminster’s
top rated Communication
and Media Research Institute
(CAMRI). Dr Mano is
the current and founding
Director of the Africa Media
Centre and a Course Leader
for the MA in Media and
Development
which
he
created in 2011.
Mano is the Principal Editor of the Journal of African
Media Studies. He has researched, presented and published
on issues related to media and communication in Africa,
especially radio, film, audiences, journalism, music and
democracy. He sits on the boards of several international
journals, is a member of the C4D Network and is the
winner of the ZAA Academic Award in 2012.
Keller Petra
Keller was born in 1965
in Bonn, Germany. She
is a Public Relations
Consultant, Event Manager
and spokeswoman to several
major companies, including
the “action concept Film and
Stunt production”, Europe’s
biggest action film producing
company awarded with seven
Taurus World Stunt Awards.
As Key Note Speaker and graduate of the Professional
Speaking Class of the German Speakers Association and
the Steinbeis University Berlin 2013, she is also an expert
on leadership and inner attitude.
Gunda Tawanda
Tawanda Gunda Mupengo
is a product of the UNESCO
Film and Television Training
Project Harare. He went on
to direct a number of highly
acclaimed short films and
documentaries,
including
Tanyaradzwa,
Special
Delivery (2005) and Spell
My Name (Peretera Maneta
– 2005) Tawanda contributed
to Zimbabwe’s Studio 263
TV soap series as a
scriptwriter upon its launch in 2003.
BEST SHORT FILM AND NEW MAN
Biyi Bandele Thomas
Bandele (born 1967) is an award-winning Nigerian
novelist, playwright and film director. Bandele is
one of the most versatile and prolific of the U.K.based Nigerian writers, having turned his hand to
theater, journalism, television, film, and radio, as
well as the fiction with which he made his name. As
a playwright, Bandele has worked with the Royal
Court Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company,
as well as writing radio drama and screenplays for
television.Acclaimed as both a prolific playwright
and a versatile novelist, his 1997 adaptation of
fellow Nigerian Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart for the British stage confirmed his place
as an important voice on the post-colonial stage.
He currently resides in London.His directorial
debut film Half of a Yellow Sun was selected to
be screened in the Special Presentation section at
the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, and
received a “rapturous reception”.
Dosunmu Andrew
Andrew Dosunmu is a Nigerian photographer and
filmmaker who came to prominence in The United
States after directing music videos for various
acclaimed artists including Isaac Hayes, Tracy
Chapman and Wyclef Jean.He is the director of the
2011 drama film, Restless City which premiered
at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. His next
film, 2013’s Mother of George, also premiered at
Sundance, and was the Closing Night selection for
Maryland Film Festival 2013.Dosunmu has directed
episodes of a widely acclaimed South African
television series “Yizo, Yizo” which dramatizes the
policy debates around education at a Johannesburg
high school in post apartheid South Africa. In 2010,
in a lead up to the first ever World Cup in Africa,
Dosunmu produced another documentary “The
African Game”. Dosunmu currently lives between
New York and Lagos, Nigeria.
Linjesa Latih
Latih Linjesa holds an Honours degree in
Psychology from the Women’s University in
Africa and a Masters in Clinical Psychology from
the University of Zimbabwe and currently works
in the Department of Psychology at Women’s
University of Africa as a full-time lecturer. Latih
co-founded a non-governmental organization
in Mabvuku that champions the cause of the
mentally challenged members of the community.
Her dream is to apply Psychology to creative
work and she holds a strong conviction that film
is the mirror of society, while psychology is the
frame that gives the mirror an outline.
Jinfeng Guo
Guo Jinfeng holds a Ph.D, Art of Film
Directing / Film Education from the
Beijing Film Academy. She is a Lecturer
of Department of Directing, Beijing
Film Academy and an accomplished
Documentary Film Director. She is the
former editor at the Beijing TV Station.
Her work in progress includes Comparison
of Art Education Paradigms Between
China and Other Cultures.
Dzobo Abel
Dzobo is a journalist and is the producer-director
of “The Show Goes On”, the ground-breaking
cancer awareness documentary that celebrated
late musician Tongai Moyo’s inspirational battle
against the disease. He scripted on “I want a
Wedding Dress 2 and 3” under the supervision
of the Director/filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga.
He has been part of the Zimbabwe’s major film
festival, the International Images Film Festival for
Women, as a adjudicator. Equipped with scriptwriting and directing skills and has attended
script-writing workshops organized by
the Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe (WFOZ). Abel is also in the final
semester of a Masters in Media and Society Studi es degree with Midlands
State University, where film and documentary are an integral part of the degree.
He is also the Operations Director of KreativeHive Corps (PVT) Ltd, a film
and content production company.
DISTINGUISHED WOMAN OF
AFRICAN CINEMA JURY
Nsengiyunva Beverley
Nambozo
Beverley
Nambozo
Nsengiyunva
is
a
Ugandan poet and writer
who pioneered the only
poetry award for women
on the continent. She
was the sole creative
entrepreneur providing
creative platforms for
Ugandan women through
this exclusive poetry award, the BN Poetry Award.
She is a holder of a Distinction in Masters in Creative
Writing from Lancaster University in the UK.
Nambozo is currently working on the BN Leadership
Academy for Women and Girls in Africa, whose aim
is to set a new standard for leadership across the
continent, using principles that are relevant to the
continent.
Manyika Sarah Ladipo
Sarah Ladipo Manyika
was raised in Nigeria
and has lived in Kenya,
France, and England. She
holds a Ph.D. from the
University of California,
Berkeley, and currently
teaches literature at
San Francisco State
University.
She has
written essays, academic
papers, book reviews and short stories. Sarah is a
book juror for the Etisalat Prize for Literature and
for the California Book Awards. She sits on the
boards of Hedgebrook and The Museum of the
African Diaspora.
Rumisha Wilson
Rumisha
is
the
Marketing Manager at
Kijiweni Production and
a Producer/Production
Manager. Wilson is a
member of the Focus
Features Alumni and
works alongside Amil
Shivji and Writer and
Director of the Multiple
Award Winning Film
“Shoeshine”(2013).
He is a Tanzanian representative of the Luxor
African Film Festival & Etisal Film funding
project for African Film Makers Living in
Africa. Wilson D. Rumisha graduated from
the University of Namibia, with an Honours in
Business Administration. Majoring in Strategic
Marketing and Minor in Entrepreneurship.
Sekiyama Darkoa Nana
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
is a Communications
Specialist at the African
Women’s Development
Fund. She is a writer
whose articles have been
published widely with
features in the Guardian,
the Chronic and Feminist
Africa.
Nana
has
authored a
‘Communications Handbook for Women’s Rights
Organizations’, is co-author of ‘Creating Spaces
and Amplifying Voices: The First Ten Years of the
African Women’s Development Fund’, and editor
of ‘Women Leading Africa: Conversations with
Inspirational African Women’. In 2013, Applause
Magazine listed Nana as one of ’40 Inspirational
Africans Under the age of 40.

Download Report