7 African Animations
You Should Know
And Their Creators
Kwame is an animator and illustrator living in Nairobi, Kenya heading up animation studio Apes in Space. He has been involved in several animation training and production initiatives on the continent, including UNESCO’s ‘Africa Animated!’ Project, and Tiger Aspect’s ‘Tinga Tinga Tales‘ children’s TV series. Kwame produces short films, commercials, and storyboard work for the budding film and animation industry in Kenya. Kwame also illustrates for book and editorial. His most notable success being writing and illustrating the children’s book ‘A Tasty Maandazi’ 2006.
The short film ‘The Legend of Ngong Hills’, produced in 2010, marks Kwame’s endeavor to showcase the possibilities that lie in using animation to tell African folklore and fantasy.
Adamu Waziri is a lover of all things animation. As is common with most animators, he was drawing comics and cartoons from a young age. He trained as an architect originally at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He then did a Masters in Animation at the NCCA in Bournemouth in the UK. He worked as a 3D animator in London in companies like Passion Pictures and Arup. He proceeded to set up EVCL, a creative studio in Abuja Nigeria. EVCL is now producing a new children’s series called Bino and Fino.
Dr. Mohamed Ghazala is a lecturer, artist of animated films, and the founder and director of the first chapter of the International Animated Film Association ASIFA in Africa and in the Arab world based in Egypt. Currently he works as full-time lecturer in Minia University and Since he finished his under graduation study, he directed and co-directed many awarded films, such as "Carnival" (2001), "Crazy Works" (2002), "HM HM" (2005),"Sayari Yetu" (2006), including the first Yemen's animated film "Salma" in 2006.and "Honyan's Shoe" (2009) which won the Animation Prize at The African Movie Academy Awards (The African Oscar AMAA) in Lagos/Nigeria 2010.
Ree Treweek forms a third of the fantasy collective The Blackheart Gang whose focus largely concerns explorations into a realm best known as The Household. The Gang have been documenting this realm using a number of mediums including music, books, short films and Instillation pieces. Ree also forms part of the Gang’s commercial counterpart, Shy The Sun. As a character designer and director, Ree forms an integral part of the company, adding pivotal ideas and imagery to the company’s creative process.
A Kenyan Digital Content Creator, Gatumia trained in Canada and has been working in Kenya for the last 9 years. He has worked with various advertising agency teams to produce advertising material for the television broadcast media. He has also done editing and post-production work on two short documentaries. He currently heads RECON-Digital, a local animation outfit, actively engaged in developing top quality animation products for both the Kenyan and the international markets with a strong leaning towards producing story-driven animation.
Anthony was born in 1979 in Cape Town, left a career in science to pursue his love for animation. He studied stop-motion animation at Van Arts, in Vancouver, and his first film "The Slipper Cycle", was awarded in Tampa, Florida, and the NTVA Stone Awards. Anthony is now Head of Story and Creative Producer/Director at Triggerfish, in Cape Town. He is one of the founding members of Animation SA and animationXchange.
Phil Cunningham’s is an entrepreneurial, “out of the box” animation producer & the owner of Sunrise Productions. His passion is story and the incredible power of how story translates across race, cultural and age barriers in the format of animation. He produced Africa’s first animation feature film The Legend of the Sky Kingdom. Following that came Jungle Beat a CGI TV series that has been broadcast in 170 countries. Series 2 is currently in production. Soon to be released is The Lion of Judah a full-length CGI animated feature Phil produced. Sunrise also created Bokkie a CGI animated character who is the official mascot of SA Rugby.
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About the Author
via afripopmag.com