Joseph Gaï Ramaka
Director
Biography
Senegal
Joseph Gaï Ramaka was born in 1952 in St. Louis, Senegal. After completing studies in visual anthropology at the Paris School of Social Sciences and film studies at the IDHEC, Ramaka created the French production and distribution company, Les Ateliers de l’Arche, in 1990. The Senegalese branch of this company opened the Bell’Arte space in Senegal in 1999, a Dolby stereo-equipped screening facility. This in turn jump-started the creative work of the Arche Studios, West and Central Africa’s first 15,000 square meter sound stage with computerized lighting. Some of Ramaka's films include And What If Latif Was Right winner of Best Documentary Film Award at the Vues d'Afrique Festival - Montreal 2006, Karmen Geï (2000, Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals), Ainsi soit-il (1997, Short Film Prize at Vues d’Afrique), Nitt...N’doxx / Les Faiseurs de Pluie (1988), and Baaw-Naan / Rites de Pluie (1985). He established the New Orleans Afrikan Film Festival in 2007 and in 2013, he created Gorée Island Cinema, a space for encounters and cinematographic creations, which has presented the Gorée Cinema Festival since 2015.
Filmography
Baaw-Naan / Rites de Pluie
(1984)
Nitt…N’doxx / Les Faiseurs de Pluie
(1988)
Ainsi soit-il / So Be It
(1997)
Karmen Geï
(2001)
And What If Latif Was Right
(2006)
It's My Man
(2009)
Mbas mi
(2020)
Films Curated by AFF
Mbas mi
Senegal / 2020 / 8mins / Poetry film / Wolof
Karmen Geï
Senegal / 2001 / 82mins / Drama, Musical / French and Wolof
And What If Latif Was Right / Et si Latif avait raison
Senegal and France / 2006 / 95mins / Documentary / Wolof and French
So Be It
Senegal / 1997 / 26mins / Drama / French and Wolof
