The Documentary Center

Adama Salle – Burkina Faso | Marrakech, Morocco

Adama Salle was born and raised in Burkina Faso, and is currently living in Marrakech, Morocco as an independent filmmaker and novelist.

His contribution to documentary filmmaking is multifaceted. As a member of Afrodoc-Burkina and African Symposium's "Cinema du Reel", he and ten other young African filmmakers write an annual paper about the state of documentary filmmaking in Africa.

He has made seven documentary films and published his first novel, "An Oblique Marriage" in 2006.

Arlene Guevara Centeno – Managua, Nicaragua

Arlene Guevara Centeno is a seasoned television producer and director in Nicaragua. Her work brings the lives of young Nicaraguan women and men to the screen, addressing the social issues facing urban Nicaraguans of today.

For the last twelve years she has worked for a major Nicaraguan feminist media organization that has produced over 80 episodes of a television series that deals with social, political, and cultural topics.

Arlene feels that she is an "emerging filmmaker," because she has amassed enough experience to develop projects that are more original and innovative, while not losing sight of her responsibility to recount her community's story with a journalist's objectivity and integrity.

Arshad Mushtaq – Kashmir, India

Arshad Mushtaq is an independent filmmaker from India, who for the last seven years has been following the beat of his own drum, living in Kashmir where he was born and raised. Though he says that he has plenty of offers to move and work in a safer environment, he prefers to face the challenges in Kashmir than "to be brain dead somewhere else... just doing a job without my heart being there."

Mushtaq has made 8 documentaries. His current film, in progress, is about the fading legacy and craftsmanship of Kashmiri artisans. Additionally, he is a guest lecturer at the University of Kashmir, where he teaches broadcast television and traditional media practices.

Buddhini Ekanayake – Battaramulla, Sri Lanka

For Sri Lankan filmmaker, Buddhini Ekanayake, her first love was the performing arts. But it was the fact that Sri Lanka has seen more than its share of social and political conflicts, that convinced Buddhini to pursue another career path – journalism.

She began her career in television in 2001, as a video journalist. She has produced an extensive list of short-form documentaries for her former employers, Young Asia Television and TVE Asia Pacific, but in 2009 left to work independently. She shot her first independent film, The Village Of Three Kings earlier this year and is looking forward to making creative documentaries to address the issues of her part of the world.

Fauzia Khan – Dhaka, Bangladesh

Fauzia Khan is presently working as an independent filmmaker, writer and director. She has roughly 15 documentary films under her belt, and is one of the founding members and former president of the "Bangladesh Documentary Council" – Bangladesh's only organization working to popularize documentary film appreciation amongst local audiences. Most of her work has focused on various aspects of human rights and the portrayal of women's lives.

Additionally, Fauzia is a part-time teacher of film theory and documentary production, and through a local NGO, tutors aspiring young filmmakers who are physically challenged.

Fernando Gonzales Cruz de Mamari – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Brazilian filmmaker, Fernando Cruz de Mamari uses his academic training in geography to study the interrelation of globalization, urbanization and agricultural development and uses these themes as the basis of many of his documentary films.

He is an emerging filmmaker with two films to his credit, and for six months in 2009 he traveled throughout Latin America filming 100 hours worth footage on social movements and various grassroots organizations. He says that he has dedicated his life to supporting the organization of workers, especially in community cooperatives.

Currently, he also teaches the indigent and homeless community in Brazil documentary production techniques.

Hasmik Hovhannisyan – Yerevan, Armenia

Hasmik Hovhannisyan is one of a growing number of young Armenian filmmakers, and is a proud representative of the first post-war generation of today's independent Armenia. In the past six years, she has created numerous short documentaries and worked as executive producer on the international film festival award-winner, Border by veteran Armenian filmmaker, Harutyun Khachatryan.

Hasmik's most recent documentary project is part of "15YbY" (15 Young by Young), a series that gives voice to 15 young filmmakers – a unique generation born in the Soviet Union but who grew up in an independent, new state.

Indrani Kopal – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Malaysian film journalist, Indrani Kopal, says that for the first time in her life she knows for certain what she wants to do with the rest of her life – and that is making documentaries. She currently works as a multi-media producer for Malaysiakini, an independent, on-line news media agency.

Since 2006 she has produced dozens of short documentaries on various social issues, particularly on the plight of the Indian community in Malaysia. She values the fact that she is capable of persuading and convincing people to act upon the messages highlighted in her films. Her defining moment came when her short film, She's My Son, was selected for best short documentary in a local competition.

Irene Nduta Mungai-Kimuli – Kenya | Kampala, Uganda

In three short years while working for an independent film house based in Uganda, Kenyan-born filmmaker, Irene Nduta Mungai-Kimuli, has directed and/or produced roughly 12 documentaries. Presently she lives in Kampala, Uganda as a freelance journalist and independent filmmaker.

Irene also volunteers at a women's organization called, MEMPROW (Mentoring and Empowerment Program) where she teaches young girls how to document their stories. Irene feels that every story is an experience that adds value to the craft of documentary filmmaking.

Jibran Jawaid – Karachi, Pakistan

For the past 3 1/2 years Jibran Jawaid has been working as a producer for Geo News in Pakistan. Although his academic background is in Information Technology and Accounting, the possibility of bridging the gap between ideas and the visual has always been the driving force behind Jibran's passion for making films.

Jibran has deftly reconciled the two worlds by specializing in HD format, which he feels holds the key to the future. He enjoys creating projects that cover social issues and Sufism, along with making commercials, narrative films & music videos. He has worked on documentaries that were featured at the Kara & Jaipur Film Festivals and his film, Missing In Pakistan was broadcast on European Current TV.

Kimeshree Munsamy – Cape Town, South Africa

A recent film and television graduate, Ms. Kimeshree Munsamy, has more than five films to her credit and believes that documentary filmmaking has been a means for expression of her personal, political and historical biography.

Although she was born and raised in South Africa, her familial ethnic roots are located in the South Indian Tamils, a people who she says have a direct genetic link to Africa and who serve as the basis of her current film about the Dravidians. Along side identity and race, labor issues are also prevalent themes in Kimeshree's films. Through Cape Town Community Television, she produces a weekly program called "Labour Show" and has worked with a number of organizations whose core mission is activism and advocacy of disadvantaged working-class communities.

Maria Roman – Bogota, Colombia

Living in a country with a limited documentary film tradition, Maria Roman has been at the forefront of creating a community of story-tellers. With few resources at hand, colleagues describe her filmmaking method as "making film[s] however-you-can, with what-you-have."

After graduating from film school in 2005, she and a group of friends founded an animation film organization called "Kinoclaje," where they salvage 35mm film then recycle it to make experimental films.

Through Kinoclaje, she has developed animation workshops for children and developed a network with other like-minded Columbians in the media industry.

Nagy Ismaiel Mohamed Osman – Cairo, Egypt

Nagy Mohamed Osman works as an independent filmmaker in Egypt and is presently studying to be a Director at Egypt's High Cinema Institute.

He has already made seven films, and won "Best Editor" for his 2007 short documentary, 171.

Egypt – the standard-bearer of feature filmmaking in the Middle East and North Africa – has been slow to embrace the documentary film culture and this fact has impelled Nagy and a group of other independent Egyptian filmmakers to form a group called "RAHALA," (trans: passengers) as a means of producing documentary films and disseminating non-fiction stories.

Olivier Uwayezu – Kigali City, Rwanda

While only a young boy of 8 or 9 years old when the 1994 Rwandan genocide took place. Olivier Uwayezu has committed himself to documenting and preserving the history of that tragic chapter in his country's history. Through his film studio called "1994 History," he made his first film, Behind Of Full Of Sorrow in which he recorded 54 hours of personal testimonies from soldiers as well as genocide survivors.

Additionally, Olivier is quite active with various youth associations in educating them about HIV/AIDS, and last summer was a co-facilitator of a documentary filmmaking session attended by young aspiring Rwandan filmmakers. He also was the festival editor for Rwanda’s 5th Film Festival.

Pranay Subba Limbu – Kathmandu, Nepal

Pranay Limbu describes himself as a "self-taught documentary filmmaker." For the last six years he has made his living in Kathmandu by making commissioned films. But, after having been displaced for many years due to war in his homeland, Pranay returned to his village in eastern Nepal in December of 2007. He found the communities devastated and deeply divided.

Pranay says that was the defining moment when he decided to use his craft of filmmaking to heal the wounds of civil war among his people. In 2008, he along with several collaborators developed a grassroots media movement called, "CEC" – Common Efforts for Coexistence. Pranay says that he is humbled that several of his films have been effective in healing the deep wounds of his community and mobilizing them towards a "do for self" mentality.

Ratih Prebatasari – Jawa Tengah, Indonesia

Having recently graduated with a Bachelors degree in Television, Ratih Prebatasari has already immersed herself into numerous projects.

In 2007 she made her first film, Waiting For Nothing, about the victims of a mudslide in East Java, which was presented at the United Nations Frameworks Convention on Climate Change in Bali. In 2008, she was part of the Indonesian film crew for a worldwide documentary project that followed the lives of ten people from ten countries for 24-hours, and last year she was selected as the only camerawoman as part of the Recording The Future Project.

Simon de Swardt – Harare, Zimbabwe

Simon de Swardt hails from Zimbabwe's capital city, Harare, where he was born and raised. He is a self-taught filmmaker and has worked for a number of years as a semi-professional actor.

For the past few years he has been researching and documenting the effects of Zimbabwe's Land Reform Program on the country's farming industry. His first documentary House Of Justics targets the regional power bloc, the SADC (Southern African Development Community), in hopes that it might exert some influence over the Zimbabwean government to help end ongoing human rights violations.

Presently, he has two feature-length documentary projects: one, dealing with a community of refugee farm workers living across the border in Mozambique, and the other exploring a large scale arts festival that takes place in Harare every year.

Uliana Konovalova – Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Aspiring filmmaker Uliana Konovalova comes from the Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan, where she is currently working as a Research Assistant at the University of Kyrgyzstan while also pursuing a Masters Degree. Early on in her education she received a rigorous training in the performing arts, but she later decided that the field of Communications would best allow her to express herself.

Thus far, Uliana has made two documentary films, and in 2008 was selected to attend an intensive 10-day master documentary training course in Moscow. Her mission is to "artistically capture the social life of Kyrgyz society" through her films and use them to advocate and find new ways of development.

Yao Joseph Edem Homadji Ladzekpo – Accra, Ghana

Yao Ladzekpo attended the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) Ghana, where he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Motion Picture Photography and subsequently won the Best Photography Award for the 2004 class.

NAFTI gave him the opportunity to serve his nation through a national service term at the Institute. In 2005 they employed him as an Assistant Lecturer, a capacity in which he continues to serve. Since 2008, Yao also functions as a resource person for both the New York University Documenting the African City Class in Ghana and University of Ghana School of Communication where he lectures on motion picture photography, lighting and location sound recording.

Currently he is studying at the University of Ghana for Master of Arts Degree in Museum and Heritage Studies. Yao says that documentary filmmaking is one area of specialization that he has fallen in love with and is committed to developing the documentary filmmaking community in Ghana that is on par with the world standard.

Yinmony Touch – Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodian documentary filmmaker, Yinmony Touch says that he is never hopeless with what he has been given. He began studying documentary filmmaking when he was in his second year at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Since then he has made three short documentaries – one of which was a personal story about his father who was a primary grade school teacher during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Recently, he and a group of friends collaborated on a documentary about the war in Cambodia during the 1970s entitled Bomb Pound 52. The film received the backing of the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia and will screen in the U.S. sometime this year.

Currently, Yinmony is an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications at his alma mater.