John Akomfrah

John Akomfrah co-founded the seminal Black Audio Film Collective in 1982. His 1985 directorial debut, Handsworth Songs, won seven international awards including the BFI John Grierson Award. Subsequent work includes feature films – Testament (1988), Who Needs a Heart (1991), Speak Like a Child (1998) and numerous documentaries, including Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1993), The Last Angel of History (1995), Martin Luther King – Days of Hope (1997), Riot (1999) and The Nine Muses (2010). He has written extensively on film theory and aesthetics, has lectured internationally on black British cinema, and has sat on a number of arts committees. In March 2012 John Akomfrah was awarded the European Cultural Foundation's Princess Margriet Award.