Florence Ayisi

Cameroonian filmmaker and academic

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]

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

Certificate in Higher Education (Cert Ed) (1997) – School of Education, University of Sunderland, U.K.
MA in Film Production (1992) Northern School of Film and Television, Leeds Metropolitan University, U.K.
MA in Theatre and Media Production (1989) – University of Hull, U.K^[6]
Diploma in Television Production and Journalism (1987), Television Training Centre, Fulham Studios, London
BA in English (1986) - Faculty of Modern Letters and Social Sciences – University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, Central Africa^[4]

Filmography

Zanzibar Soccer Dreams (Florence Ayisi & Catalin Brylla, 2016, 64 mins) -
Transforming Lives: PNDP and Rural Development in Cameroon (2014, 35 mins)
Handing Down Time – Cameroon (2012, 55 mins)
Cameroonian Women in Motion (2012, 10 mins)
Art of this Place: Women Artists in Cameroon (2011, 40 mins)^[4]
Zanzibar Soccer Queens (2007/2008, 87 & 52 mins)^[4]^[9]
Our World in Zanzibar (2007, 35 mins)^[4]
My Mother: Isange (2005, 7 minutes)^[4]^[10]
Sisters in Law (2005) (Florence Ayisi & Kim Longinotto, 2005, 104 mins)
Reflections (2003)^[10]

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]

References

^ "Biography of Florence Ayisi". African Success. 3 June 2008. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
^ "Cannes award for courtroom film". BBC News. 24 May 2005. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
^ "Winner 2007 Independent Lens: Sisters in Law". Peabody Awards. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Florence Ayisi". Women Make Movies. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
^ "Hollywood embraces Britain's black film talent". The Independent. 10 May 2008. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Honourees 2008". UK Film Council. 23 February 2012. Archived from the original on 23 February 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
^ "University of South Wales - Florence Ayisil". Retrieved 19 February 2017.
^ 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.
^ Mayer, Sophie (22 October 2015). Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 9780857729941.
^ ^a ^b "Independent Lens . SISTERS IN LAW . The Filmmakers | PBS". www.pbs.org. Archived from the original on 4 December 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
^ Meskimmon, Marsha; Rowe, Dorothy C. (2012). "Editorial". Women, the Arts and Globalization. Manchester University Press. p. 10. ISBN 9780719096716.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ 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.