Meet the 2012 Jury

Henry Corra

Henry Corra is a New York City-based documentary filmmaker. His work is influenced by cinéma vérité filmmakers David and Albert Maysles (Salesman, Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter) whom he collaborated with from 1981-1994. Since 1994, Corra has had athriving production company. He draws on the talents of some of New Yorkʼs mostinnovative and original filmmakers, editors, artists, musicians and designers.
Corraʼs films (such as George, Same Sex America, Frames) have been exhibitedworldwide in theatrical venues in New York City, San Francisco, Paris and Berlin and inbroadcast venues including HBO, Showtime, LOGO, CBS, PBS, VH1, ARTE andChannel 4. His works have also been exhibited in museum and cultural venues includingthe Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Louvre (Paris) and the National Gallery of Art(Washington, DC), as well as the Pacific Film Archives in San Francisco.
Heʼs created episodic TV projects (such as “True Life: Iʼm Ex-Amish”) for broadcasters including MTV, VH1, Bravo and the Sundance Channel and heʼs been singled out as one of their foremost directors of ʻreal-peopleʼ commercials in America, creating compelling broadcast/web content for brands as diverse as Mercedes Benz, Mastercard & Wal-mart. Corraʼs latest feature documentary, The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan, supported by the Sundance Institute and co-produced by NY based Louverture Films (Black Power Mixtape, Bamako), had its World Premiere at Silverdocs in June 2010. Michael Atkinson of The Boston Phoenix wrote, “An investigative doc brimming with cultural resonance and historical savvy, Henry Corraʼs film has ahold of a pungent story – that of the titular black Texan fella who vanished in Vietnam 40 years ago.”
Currently Corra is finishing Farewell to Hollywood, expected to premiere Spring 2013.

   

Karim Dridi

Karim Dridi is a French film director and screenwriter. He has directed ten films since 1987. His film Bye-Bye was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.

   

 

Solomon Bekele Weya

Solomon Bekele Weya is the director of one of the Ethiopian Classic films, “Aster”. Based on his original screenplay, “Aster” (35 mm, colour), a feature film produced by the Ethiopian Film Corporation was premiered in Addis Ababa in 1992, and became a big success. Solomon Bekele served as FEPACI Representative in Western Europe from 1974 to 1976. In 1993, he has been elected during the FEPACI congress in Ouagadougou as the Regional Secretary of FEPACI for Eastern Africa and stayed in the position until 1996.
Solomon is also Co-founder and Co-owner of the Cosmos Audiovisual Training and Research Institute Established in 2001. He taught Script Writing and Directing at the institute until 2003. Further he gave various directing workshops at School of Journalism and the school of Theatrical Arts of the Addis Ababa University.
In addition to Aster Solomon Bekele directed a number of short films and documentaries that were screened at international festivals around the world. FESPACO/ Ouagadougou, San Francisco IFF/USA, Teheran IFF/Iran, FIFEF/France, Dokfilmwoche/Leipzig, Rotterdam IFF, Moscow IFF, JCC/Tunisia, Film Week of Bordighera and Rome, SAFF/Harare, Berlinale and Innsbruck/ Australia are among festivals where Solomon’s films were screened.
Solomon Bekele served as a jury member at numerous international film festivals including FESPACO/ Ouagadougou, FIFEFL/ Belgium, Dokwoche and Film Woche/ Germany, SAFF/ Zimbabwe, Rencontre du cinema/ Morocco, Karlovivary IFF/ Czechoslovakia.


Solomon Bekele studied filmmaking at Hadeko-film, Neuss, Trans-Tel/Deutsche welle, Kőln, Cowa-Film, Cologne (Germany) and Acadamie de Paris, Ecole National de Cinematographie Louis Lumierc of France. He also studied Literature ate University de Paris VII.

   



Letebele Masemola-Jones

Amongst some of her most rewarding work, was her participation in the making of the program South Africa Now in New York, the only magazine program giving a day-by-day account of turbulent political and social events in South Africa in the late 1980’s.
In 11 African countries, she worked on over 25 dramatic films as Supervising and Executive Producer, under the series of New Directions and Mama Africa films. She has worked on several light entertainment programs for Pay TV in Africa and produced a documentary for Xoxa Productions, called A South African Love Story-Walter & Albertina Sisulu, based on the authorised biography, In Our Life Time-Walter and Albertina Sisulu,written by Elinor Sisulu. Letebele was one of 2 South African Executive Producers on the Project Ten series of documentaries in celebration of 10 years of democracy in South Africa.
Letebele was Vice-Chairperson of the innaugural South African National Film and Video Foundation and was curator of the first Sithengi Film Festival (2002) in Cape Town, a feature film Juror at FESPACO 2001 and a short film Juror at the African film festival in Milano, Italy in March 2003. She was also Chair of the adjudication panel at the 3rd Apollo film festival in Victoria West in September 2003. Letebele presented papers on cultural and media diversity to audiences in Berlin, Germany and to a NEPAD audience in Pretoria in October and November of 2004 respectively.

With her previous television company Quest Star Communication(QSC), she produced a short fiction film called Mirror, Mirror, was a consultant on the international co-production feature film, Drum and created film archive material and co-produced a documentary Freedom Wasn’t Free, for the creation of Freedom Park, a Presidential project. QSC produced the pilot for the documentary Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela directed by USA based filmmaker, Thomas Allen Harris. QSC produced a short drama in 2004 called Hopeville Mansions.
Letebele is currently developing a documentary called Manche, the African Saint, which is a story set in Limpopo province, Letebele’s ancestral home. In addition to her film work, Letebele has worked in Corporate Communication and PR locally and internationally and recently began working in the Parliament of South Africa as the Manager: Media Management, while maintaining her love and passion for films from around the world.

   

 

Don Omope

Don Dewale Omope is a Film Critic and Editor of the popular African film publication, African Screens Magazine. A ground breaking and unique magazine of its kind, African screens celebrates the African sense of self through cinema. It fills a gap in the market for a rich discourse that brings together a plurality of views, contextualizing African films. With the use of articles, video interviews, photography as well as great design, African Screens brings a different approach to experiencing the African cinematic experience online. Prior to working as a film critic, Don worked in television for many years and still currently does as a producer/Director. Trained at the BBC, Don went on to work as Africa producer for Sir David Frost at Aljazeera News, Don left to set up his own production company Boombox television and produced the award wining television show Afrika Rising, which air in 47 African countries. Don was subsequently appointed as an arts columnist for Nigeria’s largest circulating newspaper the National Mirror in recognition of his depth of thought and analysis of African popular art. Following his deep interests in narratives and visual aesthetics Don is an avid photographer. His pictures have been published in over 15 countries and he was short listed for the International Photo Africa awards in 2010. Don’s images are celebrated for its strong narratives and profound impact and his works have been published in some of the biggest newspapers in the world. Don is a member of the British Film Institute's committee on African cinema and speaks regularly at numerous international events on African films. Don has worked as a critic and member of award jury at many African film festivals around the world. Don graduated with a first class degree in film and television production from Westminster University, and was awarded the AHRC scholarship to pursue a Masters degree in Art journalism at Goldsmith College.

   www.donomope.com

 

Ioana - Frédérique Westhoff

Ioana-Frédérique Westhoff is a consultant and expert in the development,  management  and evaluation  of projects based in a multicultural environment (media, culture, sustainable development) both in Europe and internationally. She majored  in Social Sciences and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Brussels.
She has conducted many missions in the areas of culture and society, helping to create many  events, in particular in the cinema and audiovisual field in Europe and across the world. Ioana-Frédérique Westhoff has been involved in the development, financing and production of fiction and documentary films in the private sector, both in Europe and in the USA, before working for the European Commission in Brussels. For the Media Programme (Europe’s film subsidy programme),  Ioana-Frédérique Westhoff was in charge as a senior expert of the selection, monitoring  and follow up of promotion, marketing  and networking events.
She has been a jury member for various international film Festivals, co-directed a documentary film festival in  Marseille,  and co-wrote the film policy for the film economy for the South of France PACA region, before turning back to developing projects related to social, political and urban issues.
Recently she has been heading the Program Management Unit of the 9th ACP Films Program (African, Caribbean and Pacific), the film and audiovisual subsidy programme implemented by the ACP Group of States and financed by the European Development Fund (EDF). Multilingual, Ioana-Frédérique Westhoff possesses  over 25  years of  experience as an intermediary adviser  between the needs and demands  of  stakeholders  of big institutions (both public and private) and those of small and medium sized companies,  in the area of  strategy and implementation of audiovisual and film policies,  thanks to her anthropological background and her knowledge of European and world topics.