Best Director at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2011
Djo Tunda Wa Munga (born 1972)[1] also known as Djo Munga, is a Congolesefilm director and producer. He is best known for his award-winning 2010 thriller Viva Riva!, the first feature film to be produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in over 28 years.[2]
Djo Munga was born in 1972 in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then called Zaire. At age nine he moved to Belgium where he attended a catholic boarding school at College St. Augustine for five years. He then attended a fine Arts school in Brussels before enrolling in INSAS, the national film school of Belgium, in 1993. [3]
Career
Prompted by the end of Mobutu Sese Seko's dictatorship in 1997, Munga returned to Kinshasa to start a career as a filmmaker. War broke out in 1998, upending his plans and forcing him to take on a variety of jobs beyond just filmmaking while traveling back and forth between Belgium and the DRC for the following several years.[3]
In 2002 Munga got his first notable break in the film business as a production manager on the BBC documentary television series Congo: White King, Red Rubber and BlackDeath about King Leopold II of Belgium's brutal reign over the Congo Free State.[3][4] Work on other television documentaries followed including as a line producer on the DRTV2 2004 production of The Danish Congo Adventure which chronicled the role of Danish seamen in Belgium's colonization of the Congo. In 2005 he served as assistant director on Cuba, an African Odyssey about Cuba's support for various African revolutions.[5]
In 2005, Munga also directed his own documentary, Horizon en Transition, which follows the political transition in the DRC after decades of dictatorship and five years of war. [6]
In 2006, he co-founded Suka! Productions with South African producer Steven Markovitz with offices in Kinshasa and Cape Town. It was the first production company to be established in the DRC. [7] Under the Suka! banner Munga directed the 2009 television feature, Papy, about a man struggling with the personal and professional fallout of being afflicted by HIV/AIDS. The film was part of a multi-institutional led effort to build awareness among Congolese on how to prevent the disease.[8] Other productions followed including the 2010 Congo in Four Acts, a documentary Munga produced and directed by fellow countrymen Dieudo Hamadi,Kiripi Katembo, Divita Wa Lusala, and Patrick Ken Kalala showing different aspects of life and society in Kinshasa.[9] Critically acclaimed, the film became the first Congolese production to premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, and screened at over 50 film festivals.[10] That same year he released State of Mind (2010), a documentary he directed which addressed reconciliation and healing in the DRC following decades of violence and unrest.
Munga capped 2010 with the international premier of his first feature film,Via Riva!, at the Toronto International Film Festival. He wrote, directed and produced the thriller, a gritty portrayal of life in Kinshasa that became an international critical and commercial success. It went on to receive 12 nominations and win 6 awards, including for Best Director, at the 7th Africa Movie Academy Awards.[11][12][13] It also won Best African Movie at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards.[14] In 2011 the film opened in 18 countries throughout Africa, an unusually wide release for an African film. [15]
In the director notes for the film Munga stated: "In making Viva Riva! I wanted to find a new way to talk about life in Kinshasa today - to describe how my hometown works and how it doesn't work. I also felt the time was right to depict aspects of life in the capital that everyone knows exist but no one has ever talked about publicly."[16]
He was named African trailblazer at the 2010 MIPCOM, the international forum for documentary screenings.
Kinshasa film training program 2008-2015
In 2008 Munga started a series of training initiatives overseen by Suka! in collaboration with INSAS, the national film school of Belgium, and with the support of the King Baudouin Foundation and other funders. Following the success of the first three years (2008-11) the program expanded to incorporate more students and lengthier training sessions that lasted 11 months. The program became institutionalized in Les Ateliers Actions de Kinshasa, the DRC's first film and television school. However, training was ultimately suspended in 2015 due to political turmoil in the country, lack of funding, and lack of support from Congolese institutions.[17][18]
A 2020 report by the King Badouin Foundation on the impact of the training found that the increase in film production in Kinshasa over the previous decade could be directly connected to the impact that the production and release of Congo in 4 Acts and Viva Riva, two Suka! productions, as well as Rebelle (2012) and Kinshasa Kids (2012)—all which involved a large number of students from Suka/INSAS training, including three of the directors of Congo in 4 Acts. According to Congolese film professionals interviewed for the report, the success and global recognition of these films inspired a new generation of emerging Congolese filmmakers. The report also found that there was hardly a film set at in Kinshasa in which it was estimated that at least half of the people involved hadn't participated in the Suka/INSAS training program. One filmmaker and producer was quoted as saying that “90% of film projects that take place in Kinshasa today see the participation of people who attended the trainings organized by Suka". [18]
References
↑ "Djo Tunda Wa Munga". Brooklyn, New York, USA: www.icarusfilms.com. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
Kinshasa, formerly named Léopoldville until 30 June 1966, is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of the world's fastest-growing megacities. Kinshasa's 2024 population was estimated at 17,032,322. It is the most densely populated city in the DRC, the most populous city in Africa, the world's fourth-most-populous capital city, Africa's third-largest metropolitan area, and the leading economic, political, and cultural center of the DRC. Kinshasa houses several industries, including manufacturing, telecommunications, banking, and entertainment. The city also hosts some of DRC's significant institutional buildings, such as the Palais du Peuple, Palais de la Nation, Court of Cassation, Constitutional Court, Cité de l'Union Africaine, Palais de Marbre, Stade des Martyrs, Immeuble du Gouvernement, Kinshasa Financial Center, and multiple federal departments and agencies.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply Congo, is a country in Central Africa. By land area the country is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 110 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean.
Congolese music is one of the most influential music forms of the African continent. Since the 1930s, Congolese musicians have had a huge impact on the African musical scene and elsewhere. Many contemporary genres of music, such as Kenyan Benga and Colombian Champeta, have been heavily influenced by Congolese music. In 2021, Congolese rumba joined other living traditions such as Jamaican reggae music and Cuban rumba on UNESCO's "intangible cultural heritage of humanity" list.
Soukous is a genre of dance music originating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, with faster dance rhythms and bright, intricate guitar improvisation, and gained popularity in the 1980s in France. Although often used by journalists as a synonym for Congolese rumba, both the music and dance associated with soukous differ from more traditional rumba, especially in its higher tempo, song structures and longer dance sequences.
OK Jazz, later renamed TPOK Jazz, was a Congolese rumba band from the Democratic Republic of the Congo established in 1956 and fronted by Franco. The group disbanded in 1993, but reformed in 1996.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a multilingual country where an estimated total of 242 languages are spoken. Ethnologue lists 215 living languages. The official language, since the colonial period, is French, one of the languages of Belgium. Four other languages, all of them Bantu based, have the status of national language: Kikongo-Kituba, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba.
Articles related to the Democratic Republic of the Congo include:
Joshua Olav Daniel Hodne French is a Norwegian-British man who was convicted of murder in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He worked as a security contractor with his friend Tjostolv Moland when they were arrested in May 2009, and he was later convicted of attempted murder, armed robbery, the formation of a criminal association and espionage for Norway, of which he and Moland were found guilty and sentenced to death. In 2014 he was also convicted of the murder of Moland. He was released in 2017 after serving 8 years of his sentence, and returned to Norway.
Belgium–Congo relations refers to relations between the Kingdom of Belgium and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The relationship started with the exploration of the Congo River by Henry Morton Stanley.
The People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have maintained diplomatic relations since 1961 and contacts between the two regions stretch back to 1887 when representatives of the Congo Free State established contacts with the court of the Qing dynasty. The first treaty between the two powers was signed in 1898.
Viva Riva! is a 2010 Congolese crime thriller film written and directed by Djo Tunda Wa Munga. Starring Patsha Bay, Manie Malone, Fabrice Kwizera, Hoji Fortuna, Marlene Longage, Alex Herabo & Diplôme Amekindra, the film received 12 nominations and won 6 awards at the 7th Africa Movie Academy Awards, making it the most awarded film in the history of the AMAA's up to that date.
Simaro Massiya Lutumba Ndomanueno, known as Simaro, was a Congolese music rhythm guitarist, songwriter, poet, composer, and bandleader. He was a member of the seminal Congo music band TPOK Jazz, which dominated the music scene in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Georges Kiamuangana Mateta, known professionally as Verckys, was a Congolese saxophonist, composer, producer, bandleader, and record executive. A significant figure in the evolution of 20th-century Congolese and African popular music, he is referred to as "Verckys", "Vévé", "the man with the iron lungs" and "Wazola Nzimbu". Kiamuangana was the second Congolese artist to establish and independently manage a record label, Éditions Vévé, through which he brought many Congolese musicians to prominence, including Zaïko Langa Langa, Koffi Olomide, Empire Bakuba, Afrisa International, OK Jazz, Langa Langa Stars, Victoria Eleison, Historia Musica, Orchestre Kiam, and others.
Steven Markovitz is a South African film and television producer. He has produced, co-produced and executive-produced features, documentaries and short films. Steven has been producing and distributing for over 20 years. Since 2007, he has worked all over Africa producing documentary series' and fiction. He is a member of AMPAS, co-founder of Electric South & Encounters Documentary Festival and the founder of the African Screen Network.
Guy Bomanyama-Zandu is a filmmaker from the DRC.
Cinema of the Democratic Republic of the Congo originated with educational and propaganda films during the colonial era of the Belgian Congo. Development of a local film industry after the Democratic Republic of the Congo gained its independence from Belgium in 1960, and was handicapped by constant civil war.
Roger Kwami Mambu Zinga was a filmmaker in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Kiripi Katembo, also known as Kiripi Katembo Siku, was a Congolese photographer, documentary filmmaker and painter. Katembo's short films, photography and other projects focused on the daily lives of the people of Kinshasa, as well as the economic and social challenges facing the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was also a founding director of Mutotu Productions, his film production company, and the executive director of Yango Biennale, based in Kinshasa.
Patsha Bay is a Congolese actor and singer notable for Viva Riva! (2010) and Of Sentimental Value (2016).
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