Florence Ayisi

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Florence Ayisi was born in Kumba in Cameroon on 22 July 1962 [1] ). She is an academic and filmmaker. Her film Sisters in Law won more than 27 awards (including the Prix Art et Essai at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005 [2] and a Peabody Award [3] ) [4] [5] and was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination in 2006. She won the UK Film Council Breakthrough Brits Award for Film Talent in 2008. [4] [6] Since 2000 she has taught film at the University of South Wales. [7] [8]

Contents

Ayisi founded the production company Iris Films in 2005. In 2007 she was recognised with a meeting with the Queen for her work's link with Commonwealth countries. [6]

Qualifications

Filmography

Reception

Marsha Meskimmon and Dorothy C. Rowe write that "Ayisi's nuanced portraits of the lives of contemporary African women reject simplistic stereotypes and suggest that gender politics in a global world may not divide easily along the lines of nation-states, 'East' and 'West', or 'developed' and ‘developing'." [11] In a 2012 article Olivier Jean TchOuaffé said "Kim Longinotto and Florence Ayisi, in their film Sister-in-Law, stand out for the originality with which they portray the figure of the judge within a post-colonial context of insecurity, as they highlight two strong women as the faces of security and judicial stability" p196. [12] Another review describes the film as "a well-crafted, focused film that really says something about a small, manageable aspect of another culture and the people who shape it." [13] A review in Black Camera describes Sisters in law as "a film that universalises experience without co-opting it." [14]

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References

  1. "Biography of Florence Ayisi". African Success. 3 June 2008. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  2. "Cannes award for courtroom film". BBC News. 24 May 2005. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  3. "Winner 2007 Independent Lens: Sisters in Law". Peabody Awards. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Florence Ayisi". Women Make Movies. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  5. "Hollywood embraces Britain's black film talent". The Independent. 10 May 2008. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 "Honourees 2008". UK Film Council. 23 February 2012. Archived from the original on 23 February 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  7. "University of South Wales - Florence Ayisil" . Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  8. White, Patricia (1 January 2006). "Cinema Solidarity: The Documentary Practice of Kim Longinotto". Cinema Journal. 46 (1): 120–128. doi:10.1353/cj.2007.0008. JSTOR   4137156. S2CID   144270154.
  9. Mayer, Sophie (22 October 2015). Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema. I.B.Tauris. ISBN   9780857729941.
  10. 1 2 "Independent Lens . SISTERS IN LAW . The Filmmakers | PBS". www.pbs.org. Archived from the original on 4 December 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  11. Meskimmon, Marsha; Rowe, Dorothy C. (2012). "Editorial". Women, the Arts and Globalization. Manchester University Press. p. 10. ISBN   9780719096716.
  12. Tchouaffé, Olivier Jean (2012). "Women in Film in Cameroon: Thérèse Sita-Bella, Florence Ayisi, Oswalde Lewat and Josephine Ndagnou". Journal of African Cinemas. 4 (2): 191–206. doi:10.1386/jac.4.2.191_1.
  13. Malkowski, Jennifer (1 June 2007). "Reel Paradise / Sisters in Law". Film Quarterly. 60 (4): 30–34. doi:10.1525/fq.2007.60.4.30. ISSN   0015-1386.
  14. Maher, Jennifer; Moorman, Marissa (Spring 2008). "A Black Camera Movie Review: Sisters in Law by Florence Ayisi; Kim Longinotto". Black Camera. 22/23: 120–122. JSTOR   27761711.

Further reading