Tag Archives: filmmakers

Kwaku Ananse: Film Breathes Life Into Old West African Fable

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Kwaku Ananse, 2013
25 mins
Nominated for Golden Bear, Berlinale Shorts

Ghana I Love You did an excellent feature on Ghanaian-American Akosua Adoma Owusu‘s short film “Kwaku Ananse”. Owusu wrote and directed the film which will make it’s World Premiere on February 12th at the 63rd Berlinale Film Festival.

The film is a creative retelling of a West African fable about wisdom which draws upon the rich mythology of Ghana. Owusu puts her unique stamp on the story by weaving semi-autobiographical elements with the tale of Kwaku Ananse, a trickster in West African stories who appears as both spider and man making the story deeply personal.

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African Movies to Look out for in 2013

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A new picture of the adaptation of Half of a Yellow Sun

The Guardian‘s Africa Network has collected a list of eight African movies to look forward to this year. From Nigeria they list Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun which was directed by Biyi Bandele, author of Burma Boy, and will star Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Continue reading →

Big grant for African filmmakers

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Big grant for African filmmakers

Two filmmakers from the African continent have been commended by major film bodies for their bold adaptation of an Academy Award-winning film into a true African epic.

The Boda Boda Thieves, a film by South African producer James Tayler and Ugandan director Donald Mugisha, has recently been selected as one of five films – out of 113 submissions – to receive a grant from the World Cinema Fund at the prestigious Berlinale Festival in Germany.

It’s an adaptation of Italian director Vittorio De Sica’s original 1948 classic The Bicycle Thieves, which won the New York Film Critics Circle award the following year for Best Foreign Film, and an honorary Oscar in 1950. The Italian version was based on Luigi Bartolini’s novel of the same name.