Film Experts

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Mbye Cham, Gambia/USA 

Presenting 'Adanggamam' on Thursday, October 16 at 8.45 p.m.

Originally from The Gambia, West Africa, Mbye Cham is a Professor of Literature and Film in the Department of African Studies at Howard University, Washington, D.C. He attended the University of Dakar, Senegal and the University of Besancon in France before receiving his B.A. degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. He holds an M.A. degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In addition to numerous essays and chapters in books on African and Caribbean literature and film, he is the editor of EX-ILES: Essays on Caribbean Cinema, and co-editor of Blackframes: Critical Perspectives on Black Independent Cinema and African Experiences of Cinema. He regularly presents African and Caribbean films to American audiences, and has just returned from  judging the entries to the 2003 Zanzibar International Film Festival. Professor Cham will be presenting Adanggaman and participating in the Festival dialogue....

Samba Gadjigo, Senegal 

Presenting 'Tableau Ferraille' on Saturday, October 18 at 8.45 p.m.

Samba Gadjigo is Professor of French and the Literatures of the French-Speaking World at Mount Holyoke College, USA. In 1999-2000 he was Visiting Lecturer in Francophone African Literature and Film at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados, and he has also taught in Senegal. He is co-editor of books on two celebrated Senegalese artistic figures: the novelist, Aminata Sow Fall, and the film-maker. Ousmane Sembene. He has written extensively on francophone African literature and cinema, and is currently writing a comprehensive 2-volume study of Ousmane Sembene: Ousmane Sembene: La vie d’un artiste militant (Ousmane Sembene: the Life of a Militant Artist). Professor Gadjigo has facilitated the participation of director, Moussa Sene Absa, and will contribute his considerable expertise to the Festival dialogue.

Visit Samba Gadijo's website on Filmmaker Ousmane Sembene http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/sgadjigo

Bruce Paddington, UK/Trinidad 

Presenting Caribbean Classic 30th Anniversary Screening
'The Harder They Come' on Wednesday, October 15 at 8.00 p.m.

Bruce Paddington is a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. He teaches educational technology at the School of Education and film studies, video production and photography at the Centre for Creative and Festival Arts. He has worked as a Professor in Film and Video at York University, Toronto and at Bowling Green State University, Ohio and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Michigan, Florida Atlantic University, Syracuse University, Winona State University and Carleton University, Ottawa.

Paddington is a founder of Banyan Productions and a pioneer of local television in the Caribbean. He has worked as a scriptwriter, producer and director on over five hundred regional and international films and television programmes. Among his award winning productions are the thirteen part series on Caribbean culture “Caribbean Eye” (1989), the weekly cultural magazine series “Gayelle” (1985-1991) and the documentary “And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon” (1992), that was commissioned by the BBC, translated into six languages and broadcast to over a hundred countries. He is also an international media consultant and trainer having undertaken projects for UNICEF, UNESCO, ILO, UNECLAC, UNDP, PAHO and the IDRC. His training programme for the TV6/CCN group was awarded first prize by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (2000).

Paddington is a board member of the Caribbean Film and Video Federation and has been the artistic director for Caribbean Film Festivals at Florida Atlantic University, Bowling Green State University, Winona State University and for CARIFESTAS and Kairi: the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. He has published journal articles on the development of Caribbean cinema and film directors Humberto Solas (Cuba) and Francisco Athié (Mexico). He is a freelance writer and contributing editor with the Caribbean Beat magazine.

Paddington has had two photographic and video exhibitions at the Art Space@Gordon Street, The Centre for Creative and Festival Arts, St Augustine. His first exhibition, “Dream Palaces” (2002), looked at the old cinemas in Guyana while “Living With Nariva Swamp” (2003) focused on two villages in the Nariva Swamp, East Trinidad. His photographs have appeared in local, regional and international newspapers and magazines and in 1994 he was named the Photographic Industries Association Photographer of the Year.