East African first Filmmaker and festival director Leonce Ngabo of Burundi was awarded the OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF PEOPLES’FRIENDSHIP by President Nkrunziza of Burundi.
This is the highest civilian honour of the Burundi government and being awarded to a living filmmaker shows the high esteem that the people of Burundi give to the arts and to the contribution of film and Leonce Ngabo himself to arts and culture in Burundi and Africa in general.
Leonce Ngabo, musician and filmmaker. In 1991 he made Burundi’s first feature-length fiction film “Gito, the Ungrateful”. With his company Productions Grands Lacs, he has produced several documentaries, including “The Mother and the Angel”, “Waiting for the return of elephants”, and “Burundi 1850-1962”. He founded the Burundian Association of Image and Sound Creators (ABCIS) in 2007 and the International Festival of Cinema and Audiovisual of Burundi (FESTICAB) in 2009. A winner of Burundi’s national song contest, he created the musical association Amicale des Musiciens du Burundi (AMB) in 1986.
Léonce Ngabo is also an organizer of cultural events and a national and international consultant in the field of arts and culture. He also conducts training workshops on the promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions and cultural industries in Burundi.
ZIFF wishes to congratulate Leonce Ngabo who is visiting ZIFF 2013 and acknowledges his contribution to film and the arts in Africa. Hongera!