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Shirikiana Aina (born September 9, 1955) is an American film director, cinematographer, producer, and writer. Shirikiana was born in
Shirikiana Aina
on
LA Film Rebellion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aina, Shirikiana 1955 births Living people People from Detroit Howard University faculty Howard University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni American documentary film directors American women academics 21st-century American women American women documentary filmmakers
Shirikiana Aina (born September 9, 1955) is an American film director, cinematographer, producer, and writer. Shirikiana was born in Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
, MI. She is a member of the LA Film Rebellion. She founded Mypheduh Films, Inc., a distribution company for independent Pan African Films. The company produced several features from the filmmakers of the LA Film Rebellion. She also co-founded Negod Gwad Productions, a nonprofit film company providing support to indie filmmakers. She has taught courses in script writing and film production at Howard University. She is married to film director Haile Gerima
Haile Gerima (born March 4, 1946) is an Ethiopian filmmaker who lives and works in the United States. He is a leading member of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers. His films have receiv ...
.
Life and career
Shirikiana Aina attendedHoward University
Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...
and earned her Bachelor's in Film. She later attended UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
and received an MA in African Film Studies in 1982. That same year she made ''Brick by Brick'', an acclaimed short documentary film that exposes the gentrification of poor Black neighborhoods in Washington D.C.
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
In 1993 she co-produced the drama film ''Sankofa'', which was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival
The 43rd annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 February 1993. The Golden Bear was awarded to American-Taiwanese film '' The Wedding Banquet'' directed by Ang Lee and Chinese film '' Xiāng hún nǚ'' directed by Xie ...
.
Aina's work is mostly rooted within the world of documentary film. In 1997, she filmed ''Through the Door of No Return'', which document's her journey to Ghana to retrace the footsteps of her ancestors. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...
under the Planet Africa program created by artistic director Cameron Bailey. In 1998 she co-founded Sankofa Video, Books & Cafe in D.C. across the street from Howard University.
Aina directed ''Footprints of Pan Africanism'' in 2017 a documentary that explores the impact of the independence of Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
on political movements around the world. In an interview at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Aina states "Racism and white superiority would rather cut off its own nose...than see blackness be human."
Filmography
* Brick by Brick (1982) * Sankofa (1993) * Through the Door of No Return (1997) * Footprints of Pan Africanism (2017) * Residue (as actor) (2020)References
External links
Shirikiana Aina
on
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
LA Film Rebellion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aina, Shirikiana 1955 births Living people People from Detroit Howard University faculty Howard University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni American documentary film directors American women academics 21st-century American women American women documentary filmmakers