By Ogova Ondego
Published November 29, 2014
Filippe Savadogo of Burkina Faso and Charles Burnett of United States of America have been appointed to the jury of Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA).
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Described as film practitioners of world repute, the two are expected to “complement the existing Jury members and enrich the process of choosing AMAA winners with their knowledge,” says Teresa Emmanuels, Acting Chief Operating Officer of AMAA.
Filippe Savadogo is a Permanent Observer of La Francophonie to the United Nations and prior to his appointment, Savadogo was the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Communications of Burkina Faso from June 2007 to April 2011, a period in which he also served as government Spokesman responsible for La Francophonie.
Between September 1996 and August 2007, he was Burkina Faso’s Ambassador to France with accreditations to Spain, Portugal, Vatican City and Tunisia while serving simultaneously as Permanent Delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The Mississippi-born Charles Burnett is not only considered one of America’s greatest filmmakers, but he was also one of the few blacks who had access to college education in the 1960; he studied in the Film Department of University of California in Los Angeles.
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Charles Burnett is said to have first been noticed in 1981 when KILLER OF SHEEP, a drama film he wrote, shot, directed and produced in 1979, won a prize at Berlin International Film Festival in Germany. His other film, THE GLASS SHIELD, a tense, rapid-fire police drama on the corruption and racism that plagues the Los Angeles Police Department, was shown in competition at Film Festival Locarno in Switzerland.
The current Jury members of AMAA are Ayuko Babu, John Akomfrah, Shaibu Husseini, Keith Shiri, Hyginus Ekwuazi, Steve Ayorinde, Berni Goldblat, Dorothee Wenner, June Givanni and Asantewa Olatunji.
