Afrika Eye is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company,
registered at UK Companies' House, no. 06629788
About the Festival Directors
Simon Bright and Ingrid Sinclair, film producer and director, lived and worked in Zimbabwe where they were founder members of the Southern African Film Festival in Harare. They often showed their work at the great FESPACO festival in Burkina Faso. This year at Cannes they met African Filmmakers to make a selection of some of the best films for Afrika Eye.
Simon Bright has a worldwide reputation as producer and director for work foregrounding an African Renaissance. His keen interest lies in celebrating the diversity of African culture, with films like MBIRA MUSIC, SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE, which featured performances by many of Zimbabwe's finest traditional and contemporary musicians, TIDES OF GOLD which rediscovers the glories of the region's pre-historic trading past, and MAMA AFRICA, a series of six short fictions written and directed by six women directors from different countries in Africa.
Ingrid Sinclair is a documentary director with over 20 years' experience. Her work demands both understanding and recognition for what really happens beyond the myth. Her first feature, FLAME, tackling the role of women in Zimbabwe's Liberation War, received standing ovations and awards worldwide. She now works in both fiction and documentary, turning her lens on the small details of daily life to uncover the links to the larger world outside. Her programmes breathe the warmth of emotion and passion into icons and taboos that have become fixed and untouchable. Her short film RICHES was selected for international festivals world-wide and won the coveted prize of the City of Venice. Ingrid Sinclair also directed the award- winning documentary BIOPIRACY: WHO OWNS LIFE?
Our aim is to show more African films that tell stories from an African perspective. Local African and African-Caribbean communities are already involved, along with some international figures in dance and film.
Organising the festival is entirely a voluntary activity � the directors and their helpers love film and want to build bridges to a wider audience to appreciate African films and the work of local African and Afro-Caribbean communities in Bristol.
Other directors of the Afrika Eye Community Interest Company
Siobhan Kierans co-founded Tribe of Doris, the intercultural arts organisation, in 1991 whilst completing a degree in Visual Anthropology at Bristol Polytechnic. She went on to study documentary filmmaking at the Northern Media School. She has lived in Egypt and has a 30 year relationship with Morocco, as well as having travelled in many other countries worldwide. As Artistic Director of the Tribe of Doris she co-runs an annual intercultural Summer School working with artists, teachers and musicians from all over the world. She has set up several community businesses.
Louise Lynas is Production Manager and Company Director of Firstborn Creatives, and also has her finger in many other media pies.She has long held a deep interest in the arts, with a first class Honours degree and two Masters degrees (fine art and art therapy) under her belt as well as teaching experience as a visiting lecturer working in America.In recent years she was worked extensively in event management, helping organise well-known festivals and cultural events, including Womad (both in the UK and overseas), St. Pauls Carnival, Shambhala and Tribe Of Doris.Currently she is an integral member of the team at "The Spark", a region-wide magazine based in Bristol looking at life alternatives. Louise lives in Montpelier, in the heart of Bristol, and is very much part of her local community, and joined Firstborn Creatives in 2003.
Rob Mitchell is a Creative Media Producer who works with audio visual and
live media, in the television, community, arts and corporate sectors.
Works include 'Under the Bridge' (HTV/Firstborn), 'A Night to
Remember' (BBC/Available Light), 'Rush' (Brief Encounters/ Southmead
Youth Centre) and 'Is Nature Kind?'.
Work with Black Pyramid Film & Video project include 'Origins' and 'Voices Over Bristol'; countless workshops and collaboration on the Film Festival. During 2001-2, Rob has deployed media skills as Development Worker for the Bristol Race Forum.
Rob studied drama at the University of Bristol, where he was
also President of the Student Union.
From 2000, Rob was a founding partner in Firstborn Creatives.
rob@firstborn-creatives.co.uk
About the volunteers
Nobughle Nyoni "Currently a member of the Zimbabwean Community Group, I have lived in Bristol for a period of 9 and half years and have worked voluntarily in many sectors. I am currently awaiting to pursue my studies at UWE. I have a passion for learning new skills and hope to acquire valued experience under the watchful eye of both Ingrid and Simon as part of the team for the Afrika Eye Festival".
Jessica Paul is from New Zealand, has just graduated from studying history and philosophy at Cambridge, and hopes to pursue a career in documentary. She is currently the 'live-in' volunteer, focusing on press and publicity and responsible for making sure the films actually turn up!
Sarah Catterall is from Bristol and has a keen interest in getting involved with community work. Now that she has finished her masters she has turned her attention to publicising the Afrika Eye Film Festival - making sure as many people as possible hear about the event!
Socrates Mhlanga is the official Afrika Eye photographer. He is a freelance photographer in Bristol, with particular interests in events, PR photography, advertising and documentary. He is a graduate of Leicester University and like meeting people, visual design, music and film. To see some of his work please visit
Tony Kerr is the Afrika Eye web dogsbody. He has taught ages 9 to 90 in London, Bristol, Las Palmas, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Sweden, and worked as a bus conductor, educational psychologist, local government administrator, coordinator of a south-west regional voluntary sector regeneration programme and self-employed trainer/researcher for voluntary groups. He coordinates the Kingsdown Conservation Group website www.kingsdown.org.uk