ANTHONY SILVERSTON (Cape Town, South Africa)
Anthony left a career in science to pursue his love for animation. He studied stop-motion animation at Van Arts, in Vancouver, and won an NTVA Stone Award for his first film, The Slipper Cycle.
Anthony is now Head of Story and Creative Producer/Director at Triggerfish, in Cape Town. He is one of the founding members of Animation SA and animationXchange.
Production on Zambezia, a full length feature, is nearing completion.
KWAME NYONGO (Nairobi, Kenya)
Kwame is an animator and illustrator who heads up animation studio Apes in Space. He has been involved in several animation training and production initiatives on the continent, including UNESCO’s ‘Africa Animated!’ project, and Tiger Aspect’s Tinga Tinga Tales children’s TV series.
Kwame produces short films, commercials, and storyboard work for the budding film and animation industry in Kenya. He also does book and editorial illustration, his most notable success being writing and illustrating the children’s book A Tasty Maandazi.
The 10-minute short The Legend of Ngong Hills is based on a Maasai folktale in which an ogre with a habit of attacking the Maasai Village falls in love with the beautiful young maiden Sanayian.
ADAMU WAZIRI (Abuja, Nigeria)
Adamu Waziri is a lover of all things animation. As is common with most animators, he was drawing comics and cartoons from a young age. He trained originally as an architect at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, before doing a Masters in Animation at the NCCA in Bournemouth, UK. He worked as a 3D animator in London in companies like Passion Pictures and Arup, after which he set up EVCL, a creative studio in Abuja Nigeria.
EVCL is now producing a new children’s series called Bino and Fino. There is a severe lack of children's content showing positive images of the African continent, and this "fun and educational" series aims to correct this oversight.
We were also amused by this short from EVCL inspired by sudden onslaught of negative publicity that came Nigeria's way at the end of 2009/early 2010, and the suspicion that some people would rather Nigerians felt apologetic about being Nigerian.
REE TREWEEK (Cape Town, South Africa)
Ree Treweek forms a third of the fantasy collective The Blackheart Gang whose focus is the exploration of the "stranger than fiction" realm called The Household. Besides animation, the Gang document this realm in music, books, short films and installation pieces.
Ree is also a a character designer and director in the Gang’s commercial counterpart, Shy The Sun, where she adds pivotal ideas and imagery to the company’s creative process.
GATUMIA (Nairobi, Kenya)
Gatumia trained in Canada and has been working in Kenya for the last 9 years, producing advertising material and editing/post-production on short documentaries.
He currently heads RECON-Digital, a local animation outfit that develops work for both the Kenyan and international markets. Their works leans more towards story-driven animation.
Domestic Disturbance is being developed into a series about a family dealing with the vicissitudes of life in a contemporary urban setting: marital strife, sibling rivalry, financial difficulties or external relationships, the things can really take a toll on the family. But in the midst of these realities, familial love and a humorous outlook on life help them to make it through each episode.
MOHAMED GHAZALA (Minia City, Egypt)
Dr. Mohamed Ghazala is a lecturer (Minia University), animated film artist, and the founder and director of the first chapter of the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA) in Africa and in the Arab world.
Award-winning films he has directed or co-directed include Carnival (2001), Crazy Works (2002), HM HM (2005), Sayari Yetu (2006), Yemen's first animated film Salma (2006) and Honayn's Shoe (2009; clip above) which won the Best Animation award at last year's African Movie Academy Awards (the African equivalent of the Oscars).
PHIL CUNNINGHAM (Cape Town, South Africa)
Phil Cunningham is an entrepreneurial, “out of the box” animation producer & the owner of Sunrise Productions. His passion is story, and the possibilities of using animation to help stories translate across racial, cultural and age barriers.
He produced Africa’s first animation feature film The Legend of the Sky Kingdom and followed this with Jungle Beat, a CGI TV series that has been broadcast in 170 countries (Series 2 is currently in production). Soon to be released is The Lion of Judah a full-length CGI animated feature Phil produced.
Sunrise also created Bokkie, a CGI animated character and official mascot of SA national rugby team the Springboks.
Check out and bookmark African Digital Art, an incredible resource and inspiration source for digital art enthusiasts and professionals. It's run by Jepchumba, creative director and founder, and all-round digital art/illustration wonder.
A version of this article first appeared on AfriPOP! Mag.
