John Akomfrah

Sir
John Akomfrah
CBE RA
Akomfrah at Artes Mundi 7, Cardiff, October 2016
Born (1957-05-04) 4 May 1957 (age 67)
Accra, Dominion of Ghana
Alma materPortsmouth University
Occupation(s)Film director, artist, curator
Years active1986–present
Notable workHandsworth Songs (1986)
Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1993)
The Unfinished Conversation (2013)
Purple (2017)
AwardsArtes Mundi Prize
Websitewww.smokingdogsfilms.com

Sir John Akomfrah CBE RA (born 4 May 1957[1]) is a Ghanaian-born British artist, writer, film director, screenwriter, theorist and curator of Ghanaian descent, whose "commitment to a radicalism both of politics and of cinematic form finds expression in all his films".[2]

A founder of the Black Audio Film Collective in 1982, he made his début as a director with Handsworth Songs (1986), which examined the fallout from the 1985 Handsworth riots.[3] Handsworth Songs went on to win the Grierson Award for Best Documentary in 1987.[4]

With Lina Gopaul and David Lawson, his long-term producing partners, Akomfrah co-founded Smoking Dogs Films in 1998.

In the words of The Guardian, he "has secured a reputation as one of the UK's most pioneering film-makers [whose] poetic works have grappled with race, identity and post-colonial attitudes for over three decades."[5] In the 2023 New Year Honours, he was the recipient of a knighthood in recognition of his services to the Arts.[6]

Akomfrah was chosen to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2024.[7]

  1. ^ "British Film Institute ScreenOnline biography".
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sandhu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Childs, Peter; Storry, Mike, eds. (2002). "Akomfrah, John". Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture. London: Routledge. pp. 18–19.
  4. ^ The Grierson Trust. Archived 25 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (7 January 2016). "John Akomfrah: 'I haven't destroyed this country. There's no reason other immigrants would'". The Guardian.
  6. ^ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N2.
  7. ^ Adams, Tim (7 April 2024). "Interview'Another layer of pigment needed adding to the canvas': artist John Akomfrah on changing the narrative, from Windrush to colonialism". The Observer.