Anne Aghion

Last updated
Anne Aghion
Born1960 (age 63–64)
Paris, France
Occupation(s) Film director, film producer, screenwriter
Years active1996–present
AwardsOfficial Selection of the Cannes Film Festival
2009 My Neighbor My Killer Best documentary Nominee Gotham Awards 2009 My Neighbor My Killer Best Documentary Montreal Black Film Festival 2010 My Neighbor My Killer Coral Award for Best Work of a Non-Latin American Director on a Latin America Subject
1996 Se le movió el piso: A portrait of Managua
Website www.anneaghionfilms.com

Anne Aghion (born 1960) is a French-American documentary filmmaker. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Mac Dowell Colony Fellow and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Fellow.

Contents

In 2005, she won an Emmy Award for her documentary In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies . In 2009, her film My Neighbor My Killer was Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival and a nominee for Best Documentary at the Gotham Awards.

Her new film, Turbulence , twelve years in the making, is completed in 2024.

Filmmaking career

Aghion is best known for her documentary films on post-genocide Rwanda. Her feature film My Neighbor My Killer , an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, [1] poses the question of "How do you make it right again?" after the end of the genocide. [2] This film as well as the three installments of the Gacaca trilogy are the result of nearly ten years of footage gathered in a small rural community in Rwanda.

In Aghion's first Rwanda film Gacaca, Living Together Again In Rwanda? , the first installment of the Gacaca series, a trilogy she made on the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda, Anne Aghion closely examines the Gacaca courts, a citizen-based justice system that aims to try the crimes of the genocide. [3] The proceedings would occur on grass – "Gacaca" in Kinyarwanda – where anyone who had a denouncement against the accused would be free to speak. If no one accused a prisoner, then that prisoner would be freed. [4]

In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies , the second film of the trilogy, chronicles the release of a suspect in his community and how victims and suspects slowly learn how to live together. [5]

The third installment of her Rwanda series, The Notebooks of Memory , was released in 2009 and gives an account of the beginning of the Gacaca trials. It focuses on the local citizen-judges' examination of testimonies from both the survivors and those accused of the crimes. [6] The Gacaca films have won numerous awards and gained international fame. They have also been widely used by non-profit organizations for educational and training purposes, and have been screened to officials, victims and prisoners in Rwanda.

On a grant of the National Science Foundation Antarctic artist and writer program, Aghion peregrinated to Antarctica, where she filmed the feature-length, Ice People . [1] In Ice People, she filmed the lives of geologists and North Dakota State University professors Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis and the McMurdo Station staff over four months. [7] The scientists, accompanied by two undergraduate students, researched fossils of ancient specimens as they sought to uncover the climatic evolution of the world's coldest continent. [8] The film premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April 2008 [9] and was shown at the Independence Night Film of the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2008.

Her first film, Se Le Movió El Piso (The Earth Moved Under Him)—A Portrait of Managua , was shot in the skid row of Managua. The film gives viewers an inside look in the life of Nicaraguan slum dwellers as they recount the numerous obstacles they have had to overcome in their lives.

Aghion is a member of Film Fatales women's independent filmmaker collective.

Newest film

In 2024, Aghion will finish her 7th film, which has been 12 years in the making. The film, called Turbulence , tackles the following question : How do we overcome the heartbreaks, sorrow and traumas we endure or witness, and come out at peace with ourselves and the world?

In her award-winning film career, Anne Aghion has traveled the world and borne witness to the lives of people who have survived the most extreme circumstances. In Turbulence, she grapples with the shadows cast over her own life — losing her mother when she was a child, and her father’s memories of life during the Holocaust. Through a series of tender, honest and visually stunning cinematic letters to her mother, she recounts her sometimes shocking odyssey in search of resolution and peace.

The film, written, directed and produced by Anne Aghion, is made in association with Arte France - La Lucarne, and with the participation of the French Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Procirep & Angoa, Jewish Story Partners, and New York State Council on the Arts.

Biography and early career

Aghion lives in New York City and France. [10]

Before becoming a filmmaker, Aghion held various posts at The New York Times Paris bureau and the International Herald Tribune . [11] Prior to her debut as director and producer of her own films, she worked as a videographer, as well as production and post-production manager.

Aghion earned a Bachelor of Arts Magna Cum Laude in Arab Language and Literature from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York, [4] and following her studies, lived in Cairo, Egypt, for two years. [7]

Awards

Aghion won an Emmy Award in 2005 for her documentary In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies . [12] [13] [14] My Neighbor My Killer was an Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, [15] nominated for Best Documentary at the Gotham Awards. It was screened at the 2009 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York where Aghion received the Néstor Almendros Award (named for the Oscar-winning Néstor Almendros) for courage in filmmaking. [1] It also was Best Documentary at the Montreal Black Festival. Aghion also won a UNESCO Fellini Prize for Gacaca, Living Together Again In Rwanda? [16]

Ice People screened at the San Francisco Film Festival [17] in 2008 and at the Independence Film Night of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. [18]

In 1996, her first documentary Se le movió el piso: A portrait of Managua won the Coral Award for "Best Non-Latin American Documentary on Latin America" at the Havana Film Festival in Havana, Cuba. [19]

Aghion is also a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, the Mac Dowell Colony Fellowship and the Rockefeller foundation's Bellagio Center Fellowship. She has received significant praise for her work, which has been seen all over the world and is part of the collection of a great number of international university libraries. Aghion is also a sought-after speaker and teacher and has been a jury for various festivals and events.

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rwandan genocide</span> 1994 genocide in Rwanda

The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred between 7 April and 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu militias. Although the Constitution of Rwanda states that more than 1 million people perished in the genocide, the actual number of fatalities is unclear, and some estimates suggest that the real number killed was likely lower. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi deaths.

<i>Hotel Rwanda</i> 2004 drama film

Hotel Rwanda is a 2004 docudrama film co-written and directed by Terry George. It was adapted from a screenplay by George and Keir Pearson, and stars Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo as hotelier Paul Rusesabagina and his wife Tatiana. Based on the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, which occurred during the spring of 1994, the film documents Rusesabagina's efforts to save the lives of his family and more than 1,000 other refugees by providing them with shelter in the besieged Hôtel des Mille Collines. Hotel Rwanda explores genocide, political corruption, and the repercussions of violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibliography of the Rwandan genocide</span>

This is a bibliography for primary sources, books and articles on the personal and general accounts, and the accountabilities, of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The Gacaca courts were a system of transitional justice in Rwanda following the 1994 genocide. The term 'gacaca' can be translated as 'short grass' referring to the public space where neighborhood male elders (abagabo) used to meet to solve local problems. The name of this system was then adopted in 2001 as the title of the state's new criminal justice system "Gacaca Courts" to try those deemed responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide where over an estimated 500,000 people were killed, tortured and raped. In 1994, the United Nations Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to try high-ranking government and army officials accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The Gacaca Courts were established in law in 2001, began to operate on a trial basis in 2002 and eventually came to operate as trials throughout the country by early 2007. The Gacaca courts were presented as a method of transitional justice, claimed by the Rwandan government to promote communal healing and rebuilding in the wake of the Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda has especially focused on community rebuilding placing justice in the hands of trusted citizens.

God Sleeps in Rwanda is a 2005 documentary short subject about five women who were affected by the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. After the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda, most women both young, adults, and old were exceeding the number of men about 70% in which Ten of thousands of these women were raped and left at the battle to fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS, and therefore, this departed all women from the Rwandan society because their rights were not respected. Thus this documentary about God Sleeps in Rwanda has come to give us more insights about five Rwandan females who stood up for being the voice of other women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carla Garapedian</span> Armenian-American documentary filmmaker

Carla Garapedian is a filmmaker, director, writer and broadcaster. She directed Children of the Secret State about North Korea and was an anchor for BBC World News. After leaving BBC World, she directed Dying for the President about Chechnya, Lifting the Veil, about women in Afghanistan, Iran Undercover and My Friend the Mercenary about the coup in Equatorial Guinea. Her feature, Screamers, was theatrically released in the U.S. in December 2006 and early 2007, and was on Newsweek's pick of non-fiction films for 2006/7. The Independent called it "powerful" and Larry King for CNN described it as "a brilliant film. Everyone should see it." The New York Times deemed it "invigorating and articulate," while the Los Angeles Times called it "eye-opening." "Carla Garapedian is a screamer, too," said the Washington Post.

Flower in the Gun Barrel is a 2008 documentary film focusing on the process of reconciliation and forgiveness in post-genocide Rwanda. The film depicts both the current conditions in Rwanda and the buildup to the genocide in 1994. It is unique in that it illustrates the complex challenges of average citizens attempting to forgive the neighbors who slaughtered their families. It is a testament to what human beings are capable of. The topic of forgiveness, and the difficulty of coming to terms with those who have killed one's parents, siblings, children and neighbors, is a universal theme that comes to life through the example of Rwanda.

<i>Ice People</i> 2008 film about Antarctic research

Ice People is a documentary film directed by Anne Aghion about the research of Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis in Antarctica. Produced by Dry Valleys Productions, this 2008 film portrays the scientists discovering fossils from 13.9 million years ago. The film premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April 2008 and was screened at the Jerusalem Film Festival in July 2008. This film aired on Sundance Channel in 2009.

<i>In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies</i> 2004 Rwandan film

In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies is a documentary film examining the Gacaca justice process in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. Directed by Anne Aghion and produced by Gacaca Productions, this 2004 film won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Informational Programming." Filmed in Rwanda, the language of In Rwanda is Kinyarwanda with English subtitles.

<i>Gacaca, Living Together Again In Rwanda?</i> 2002 Rwandan film

Gacaca, Living Together Again In Rwanda? is the first documentary film in a trilogy by Anne Aghion examining the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Directed by Anne Aghion and produced by Dominant 7, Gacaca Productions, and Planète, this 2002 film won UNESCO's Fellini Prize. Filmed in Rwanda, the language of Gacaca is Kinyarwanda with English subtitles. In Kinyarwanda, gacaca means "grass", which was the location of the reparation trials in Rwanda.

<i>Se le movió el piso: A portrait of Managua</i> 1996 Nicaraguan film

Se le movió el piso: A portrait of Managua is a documentary film by Anne Aghion about the many layers of destruction that the people in Managua, Nicaragua endured: the 1972 Nicaragua earthquake, four decades of dictatorship and many years of war. Most of the film was centered on the Salazar theater and the many families that lived there. Sofía Montenegro, a journalist and a former Sandinista, was also interviewed as a person who lived and experienced the challenges of the Managuans.

<i>My Neighbor, My Killer</i> 2009 film

My Neighbor, My Killer is a 2009 French-American documentary film directed by Anne Aghion that focuses on the process of the Gacaca courts, a citizen-based justice system that was put into place in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. Filmed over ten years, it makes us reflect on how people can live together after such a traumatic experience. Through the story and the words of the inhabitants of a small rural community, we see survivors and killers learn how to coexist.

The Notebooks of Memory is the third documentary film in a trilogy by Anne Aghion examining the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.

Anne Karoline Frogner is a Norwegian filmmaker, photographer, writer and lecturer. She is one of Norway's foremost documentary filmmakers and is a stills photographer for the image agency Samfoto. She is the director of production company Integritet Film AS and the author of several books.

<i>Sweet Dreams</i> (2012 film) 2012 American film

Sweet Dreams is a 2012 documentary film about the Rwandan women's drumming troupe Ingoma Nshya, which was founded in 2005 by playwright Odile "Kiki" Katese with women from both sides of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The drumming troupe's success then led to the opening of an ice cream store in 2010, which also brings together people from both sides of the genocide. The documentary was co-directed by siblings Lisa Fruchtman and Rob Fruchtman; Lisa Fruchtman had learned of the troupe and the plans for the shop from Katese in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sofía Montenegro</span> Nicaraguan journalist, social researcher and feminist

Sofía Montenegro Alarcón is a Nicaraguan journalist, social researcher, and feminist. Montenegro's family were militarily aligned with the Somoza forces, but her feminist and Marxist studies moved her to join with the opposition to the regime. She fought in the Sandinista Revolution and though initially supportive of the Sandinista Party, later became an outspoken critic, saying it had moved to the right. She served as an editor of various divisions of the official Sandinista newspaper, Barricada, until 1994, when she founded the Center for Communication Research (CINCO) as an independent research organization free of government influence. She has written broadly on power, gender, and social interaction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadia Ben Rachid</span> French-Tunisian film editor

Nadia Ben Rachid is a Franco-Tunisian film editor. She has over thirty years of experience, and has spent two decades working with filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako. She won the award for Best Editing at the 2015 Césars for Sissako's 2014 film Timbuktu.

Emily Kassie is a filmmaker, investigative journalist, and cinematographer. Her debut feature documentary Sugarcane (film) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024 where it won the Grand Jury Directing Award.

Aloysie Cyanzayire is a lawyer, judge, public servant, and former president of the Supreme Court of Rwanda, currently serving her second term as Supreme Court justice. She is the first female president of the Supreme Court in Rwanda’s history.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rohter, Larry (2009-06-19). "Rwandans Judging Genocide, Their Way". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
  2. ↑ "Learn about "My Neighbor My Killer": Documentary Film on Gacaca Justice in Rwanda". Archived from the original on 13 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
  3. ↑ Ramsey, Nancy (2003-04-24). "Filming Rwandans' Efforts To Heal". The New York Times . Retrieved 2008-07-25.
  4. 1 2 Aghion, Anne. "Shooting People: Shooter Films Interview with Anne Aghion" (Interview). Interviewed by Paula Schaap. New York. Archived from the original on 2008-12-28. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
  5. ↑ "Video Reviews: Gacaca: Living Together in Rwanda? & In Rwanda We Say… The Family That Does Not Speak Dies". Centre for Justice & Reconciliation. May 2006. Archived from the original on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  6. ↑ "The Notebooks of Memory: Documentary Film on Gacaca". Archived from the original on 2009-09-22. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
  7. 1 2 "Pole Watch". Barnard News Center. 2007-03-07. Archived from the original on 2008-05-16. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
  8. ↑ "Documentary Films: Ice People". Jerusalem Film Festival . Archived from the original on 2008-10-28. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  9. ↑ "Films/Ice People". San Francisco International Film Festival . 2007. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
  10. ↑ "UNAFF2004 In Rwanda We Say... The Family That Does Not Speak Dies". UNAFF. 2004. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
  11. ↑ Tallmer, Jerry (2005-05-18). "French filmmaker tackles genocide". The Villager . Archived from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
  12. ↑ "News Emmy Awards – 26th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Award Nominee Press Release – PART B". National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences . Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  13. ↑ "Ice People | Directed by: Anne Aghion, Produced by: Benoit Gryspeerdt". Independent Television Service . Archived from the original on 2008-07-15. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  14. ↑ "PBS wins six news and doc Emmys". Associated Press. 2005-09-20. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  15. ↑ "Cannes 2009 Exclusive: My Neighbor, My Killer Director Anne Aghion On Rwanda (Video)". Huffington Post. 2009-05-21. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
  16. ↑ "Resources on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda". Prevent Genocide International. 2005-09-21. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
  17. ↑ "Ice People (Documentary -- U.S.-France)". Variety. 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
  18. ↑ "October 16, 2008 Movie Screening Information". Film Society of Lincoln Center . 2008-10-16. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
  19. ↑ "Havana Film Festival: 1996". Internet Movie Database . Archived from the original on 2013-01-04. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.