Florence Ayisi  

Florence Ayisi was born in Kumba in Cameroon and works as an academic and a filmmaker. She obtained a degree in English from the University of Yaoundé and moved to the UK where she obtained an MA in Producing and Directing, an MA in Theatre and Media Production and a diploma in Television Production and Journalism. Her film SISTERS IN LAW won more than 27 awards, including the Prix Art et Essai at the Cannes Film Festival and a Peabody Award, and was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination in 2006. Her films portray the affirmative aspects of African life, presenting unique and rare insights into lived experiences and the rich and dynamic cultures. Her work also celebrates the growing emancipation of African women; showing how women’s work and visions are at the vanguard of social and economic development. She won the UK Film Council Breakthrough Brits Award for Film Talent in 2008 and since 2000, she has taught film at the University of South Wales. Her teaching and research is underpinned by issues and ideas relating to documentary theory, post-colonial theory, representation, feminism, spectatorship in African Cinema, transnational cinemas, African Diaspora narratives, ethnography as a research method, and in mapping the aesthetic of documentary content. Florence’s research is primarily practice-based. In 2005, Ayisi founded the production company Iris Films and in 2007 she was recognized with a meeting with the Queen for her work's link with Commonwealth countries. (01/20)