Hawa Essuman is the young director who won the director’s eye prize in October 2012, an award created by lettera27 to support African cinema. During the FCAT’s Africa Produce forum a jury comprised of a Nigerian director Newton I. Aduaka and a South African producer Steven Markovitz has selected Hawa for her Djin, a project of a film that still had to be written and that lettera27 has supported in its pre-production phase. The story is inspired by an imaginary wind that blows through the village and the lives of the protagonists, transforming them and forcing them to ask questions about the things that really matter, bringing the change.
During the entire 2013 we have accompanied the artist in the process of the screenplay writing, one of the most delicate phases of the film production, a “grey zone” rarely sustained by other funds and almost always forgotten when the project is finished.
In collaboration with Hawa, we have decided to tell the behind the scenes of the Djin’s writing process through a series of videos produced by the filmmakers duo Istituto Micropunta, with the interviews by Vanessa Lanari and Claudia D’Alonzo. Each video allows us to enter into the creative writing process, an indispensible part of any film, imagining Djin through Hawa’s words before it even takes shape.
The entire series is now available on YouTube, while Shadow and Act, a famous US platform of the African diaspora cinema, has dedicated an article to the videos: the project’s results documentation and the sharing of knowledge on cinema in general, thanks to a “subjective camera” look at the director’s work.
Claude Bunny Massassa is a contemporary artist from Gabon. She created Bunny Studio in 2016, a start-up dedicated to photography production, which became DWABI Studio in 2021. As an artist, she has represented Gabon in many international exhibitions in Senegal, Uganda, France, the United States, and Italy. In her art, she denounces social stigmas around issues of identity and mental health, and explores themes of traditions and myths.
Executive Director Kimberly Aceves- Iñiguez has been passionately committed for over 20 years to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working-class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Kimberly served as the Executive Director for Youth Together, the founding organization of the RYSE Center.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently acts as the Associate Director. She supports and guides the implementation and integration of healing-centered practices, grounded in racial justice and liberation, and also develops, promotes, and advocates for policies, investments, practices, and research that enliven healing, justice, and liberation. Kanwarpal believes that the purpose of her work and life is to contribute to movements, communities, and legacies of liberation that honor the ancestors who fought for her existence and survival, and to forge a world that is just and gentle for future generations.
Sagal Ali is the founder and executive director of SAF. After a few years in her career in heritage protection in the cultural sector, she decided to develop the initiative to directly support young creatives in Somalia by launching her own foundation. She hopes to bridge the social gaps and inequalities women face in Somalia, both in society and in the arts scene.
Co-founders Catherine Dunga and Marleen Palmaers created Kitambo to bridge the gap between the African diaspora in Colombia and the narratives from the continent. From Kinshasa and Antwerp respectively, they work to connect African artists from the continent and their peers from the Colombian diaspora.
Martha Kazungu is a curator, art Historian and Founder of Njabala Foundation, an organization that curates periodic exhibitions and organizes a public program of activities to create a safe space for female artists to thrive and blossom.
Alicia Hansen is a photographer and teacher from New York. She founded NYC SALT in 2008 and, beyond teaching valuable creative skills to her students, has developed a long-term support system to uplift them through school and into their early artistic careers.
