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]
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]
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]
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]