Marina Niava | |
---|---|
Born | 1985 (age 38–39) |
Nationality | Ivorian |
Alma mater | Institut des Sciences et Techniques de la Communication |
Occupation(s) | Film director, producer, screenwriter |
Years active | 2009-present |
Parent(s) | Pierre and Cécile Niava |
Marina Niava (born 1985) is an Ivorian film director, film producer, and writer.
Niava is the youngest daughter of Pierre and Cécile Niava, both language teachers. [1] She developed an early interest in the arts and literature and won several literary prizes. She graduated from Lycée Sainte Marie d'Abidjan and received the Series A Excellence Award. After receiving her diploma in Journalism and Audiovisual Production from the Institut des Sciences et Techniques de la Communication, Niava won a competition run by Radio JAM in Abidjan and began her career as a trainee host. She later worked as a journalist for Africa 24. [2] Niava developed her interest in cinema while filming a commercial. [3]
From 2009 to 2010, Niava served as a co-writer for season 1 of the TV series Teenager, which received the award for best African series at the Vues d'Afrique Festival in Montreal. She moved to Oslo, Norway in 2010 and became communication director of the African Cultural Center. Niava oversaw the 2010 and 2011 Kino Afrika film festivals in Oslo. [2] She was an BENIANH International Foundation's Excellent Scholarship Program laureate in 2012. [4]
In October 2012, she directed her first documentary, Noirs au soleil levant, about the lives of African students in Tsukuba, Japan. Niava's first fictional short film, 21, was completed in December 2013. [2] It was financed by funds from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. [5] 21 is about a young woman who cannot stand her mother's younger lover and was the only African film screened at the Oakland International Film Festival. Niava directed the short tragedy Worse in 2014. [3] She worked as the special effects coordinator for the 2015 film Advantageous . [6]
Niava completed her master's degree in Film and Television at Academy of Art University. [7] In 2017, Niava wrote her first novel, American Dreamer. It was a finalist for the 10th Prix Ivoire pour la Littérature Africaine d’Expression Francophone. [8]
Véronique Tadjo is a writer, poet, novelist, and artist from Côte d'Ivoire. Having lived and worked in many countries within the African continent and diaspora, she feels herself to be pan-African, in a way that is reflected in the subject matter, imagery and allusions of her work.
Tanella Suzanne Boni is an Ivorian poet and novelist. Also an academic, she is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Abidjan. Apart from her teaching and research activities, she was the President of the association of writers of the Côte d'Ivoire from 1991 to 1997, and later the organizer of the International Poetry Festival in Abidjan from 1998 to 2002.
Mariama Ndoye-Mbengue is a Senegalese writer born Mariama Ndoye. She became "Ndoye-Mbengue" on marriage. She has a doctorate in French language and literature. She has received awards for her short-stories and novels. For a period until 1986, she was curator of the IFAN Museum of African Arts in Dakar. She has also lived abroad spending 15 years in the Côte d'Ivoire and currently living in Tunisia.
The cinema of Senegal is a relatively small film industry which experienced its prime from the 1960s through to the early 1980s, but has since declined to less than five feature films produced in the last ten years. Senegal is the capital of African cinema and the most important place of African film production after its independence from France in 1960.
Med Hondo was a Mauritanian-born French director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Considered a founding father of African cinema, he is known for his controversial films dealing with issues such as race relations and colonization. His critically acclaimed 1970 directorial début feature, Soleil O, received the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno International Film Festival and was chosen in 2019 by the African Film Heritage Project for restoration. His 1979 film West Indies was the first African film musical and, at $1.3 million, the most expensive production in African film history.
Yacouba Konaté is an Ivorian curator, writer and art critic. He is a professor of philosophy at the Université de Cocody in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Shuga, also known as MTV Shuga, is a television drama that first aired in November 2009 on MTV Base as part of an initiative dubbed "MTV Staying Alive Ignite!". Its first two seasons were commissioned by MTV Networks Africa in association with The MTV Staying Alive Foundation, PEPFAR, the Partnership for an HIV-Free Generation (HFG) and the Government of Kenya, as part of a multimedia campaign to spread the message about responsible sexual behaviour and tolerance. The term Shuga is derived from the pronunciation of "Sugar" in Kenyan English.
Isabelle Boni-Claverie is an author, screenwriter, and film director born in the Ivory Coast. She moved to Switzerland when she was a few months old, then to France, but mostly grew up in Paris.
Regina Yaou was a writer from Ivory Coast.
Véronique Bra Kanon is an Ivorian politician and vice-president of the National Assembly of the Ivory Coast. She was the first woman to be president of an Ivorian regional council, leading the council of Moronou from 2013 to 2018.
Brigadier-General Akissi Kouamé was an Ivorian army officer. She joined the army's medical service in 1981, whilst still a medical student. Kouamé became the first woman in the army to qualify as a paratrooper and in 2012 became its first female general.
Laetitia Ky is a feminist artist from Ivory Coast who creates sculptures from her hair, and is seen by many as a figurehead in the natural hair movement.
Angela Aquereburu is a Togolese screenwriter, film producer and film director.
Sarah Magaajyia Silberfeld is a French actress and film director.
Marcel Zadi Kessy was an Ivorian politician.
Amélie Wabehi Zadjé is an Ivorian actress and comedian.
Paul Kodjo was an Ivorian photographer. Kodjo was best known for his photographs taken in Abidjan during the 1970s, following the Ivory Coast's independence from France. He has been called the "father of Ivorian photography".
Charles Zégoua Gbessi Nokan was an Ivorian academic and writer. He was a member of the Académie des sciences, des arts, des cultures d'Afrique et des diasporas africaines and the author of several works on theatre, poetry and novels. He was a recipient of the Bernard Dadié national grand prize for literature in 2014.
Blaise Adolphe Antoine Marie Senghor was a Senegalese film director, screen writer and UNESCO Permanent Delegate and vice-chairman for Senegal.
Fatou Bolli is an Ivorian novelist. She was the second published Ivorian woman writer with her 1976 novel Djigbô.