John Akomfrah is a renowned British filmmaker and video artist who has been at the forefront of the British avant-garde film movement for nearly four decades. He was born in 1957 in Accra, Ghana, and moved to England at the age of 14. He studied English and Drama at the University of Bristol in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and then went on to attend the Royal College of Art, where he studied film and video.
Akomfrah’s career began in the mid-1980s when he and a group of other young filmmakers formed the Black Audio Film Collective, which sought to create a more authentic representation of black British people and their experiences. Akomfrah’s first feature film, Handsworth Songs (1986), was an important part of the collective’s work, and it established him as a major figure in the British film scene.
Akomfrah has since gone on to make a number of feature films, documentaries, and video installations, most of which explore themes of identity and cultural memory. He has collaborated with major institutions such as the British Film Institute, the Tate Modern, and the Serpentine Gallery, as well as with other leading artists and filmmakers. In 2008, he was awarded an MBE for his services to the arts.
Akomfrah’s work has been widely celebrated, and he has been the recipient of numerous awards. He won the Artes Mundi Prize in 2011 and the BFI Fellowship in 2012. In 2013, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the 70th Venice International Film Festival for his feature film, The Stuart Hall Project.
Akomfrah is also a sought-after lecturer and speaker, and has lectured at universities and institutions around the world. He currently lives and works in London, and continues to be a major force in the British avant-garde film movement.
