AFRICAN WOMEN IN CINEMA

AWDF would like to extend a big congratulations to Yaba Badoe who has been nominated for the ‘Distinguished Woman of African Cinema Award’ alongside Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche and Lupita N’yongo! The award is given by the International images Film Festival for Women(IIFF) biennially, IIFF being a programme of Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe which is celebrated in five countries – Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and Somalia with the support of the EU-ACP programme for ACP cinema. WFOZ “zooms in on women”.

AWDF is proud to have been able to support two of Yaba Badoe’s projects, “Les sorcières de Gambaga’ and ‘The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo!’

 

Yaba Abdel, born in 1955, is a Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker, journalist and author. She left Ghana to pursue an education in Britain at a very young age. A graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, Badoe worked as a civil servant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ghana,before beginning her career in journalism as a trainee at the BBC. She also was a researcher at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. She has taught in Spain and Jamaica and has worked as a producer and director making documentaries for the main television channels in Britain. Among her credits are: Noir et blanc, an investigation into race and racism in Bristol, utiliser des caméras vidéo cachées pour BBC1; Je veux ton sexe, an arts documentary exploring images and myths surrounding black sexuality in Western art, literature, film and photography, pour le canal 4; and the six-part series Voluntary Service Overseas for ITV.

In addition to making films, Badoe is a creative writer, son premier roman, Vrai meurtre, being published by Jonathan Cape in 2009 Her short story “The Rivals” was included in the anthology African Love Stories (Ils étaient, 2006), edited by Ama Ata Aidoo. Badoe directed and co-produced (with Amina Mama) the documentary film The Witches of Gambaga, which won Best Documentary at the Black International Film Festival in 2010, and was awarded Second Prize in the Documentary section of FESPACO 2011.Her next film project is entitled L'Art de Ama Ata Aidoo.