Roger Hawkins is a

Zimbabwean Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Moza ...

director and film producer best known for films such as ''

The Legend of the Sky Kingdom ''The Legend of the Sky Kingdom'' is a 2003 animated feature film directed by Roger Hawkins. Produced in Harare, Zimbabwe, the film was the first full-length animated feature film to come out of Africa. It was based on a children's book of the ...

'' (2003), ''The Silent Fall'' (2006) and ''The Lion of Judah'' (2009).

Early life and career

Born and raised in

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

, Zimbabwe, Hawkins graduated with a BSc degree in agriculture from the

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-N ...

. After earning his BSc, he became a school teacher, advertising copywriter, fumigator, soil surveyor, research assistant, lounge pianist and landscape gardener. Hawkins resigned from his job as a math teacher in 1993 to pursue a career in the performing arts. He staged a musical he wrote and directed called ''The Singer''. Following the success of ''The Singer'', Hawkins produced the TV series ''Adventure Unlimited'' and the television film ''Choose Freedom''. He studied directing at the independent film school

Raindance Film Festival Raindance is an independent film festival and film school that operates in major cities including London, Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Budapest, Berlin, and Brussels. The festival was established in 1992 by Elliot Grove to ...

. Hawkins directed the 60-minute TV film ''Dr Juju'', which was shot in six days. In 2003, Hawkins released his full-length animated feature film ''

''. It was made in Harare and pioneered a technique called "junkmation". The film was chosen among the top five of 1,300 entries at the World Animation Festival in France. Hawkins worked with fifteen people and spent four years making the film. The characters and sets in the film were made from discarded items such as car parts, tools, kitchen utensils, pipes and pieces of wood.

Selected filmography

* ''

'' (2003) * ''The Silent Fall'' (2006) * ''Chose Freedom'' * ''Dr Juju'' * ''The Lion of Judah'' (2009)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Roger Living people Zimbabwean film directors Zimbabwean filmmakers University of Natal alumni Year of birth missing (living people)