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Anne Aghion, seen here with Rwandan cameraman James Kakwerere during the shoot of In Rwanda we say..., is the recipient of a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship in filmmaking. The Guggenheim Foundation appoints fellows on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.

Anne Aghion

Anne Aghion is an award-winning Franco-American filmmaker living between Paris and New York. In April 2005, she was nominated to a prestigious one-year Guggenheim Fellowship in order to pursue her filmmaking work as freely and independently as possible. Her most recent films, In Rwanda we say... The family that does not speak dies and Gacaca, Living Together Again In Rwanda?, have received accolades around the world. For Gacaca, which the film trade Variety called “an impressive docu,” Aghion received the Fellini Prize from UNESCO. Journalist and Rwanda expert Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, Stories from Rwanda, commented that “The film captures quite precisely much of what is most compelling and unsettling about Rwanda’s quest for justice after genocide.” Broadcast on French television yielded “Special Picks” from eight of the country’s top national publications, along with reviews calling it “remarkable,” and “riveting,” and praising Aghion’s “open, human approach.” When both films aired on Sundance Channel in April 2004 to mark the Tenth Commemorations of the genocide, the Washington Post called In Rwanda we say… “astonishing,” and the Connecticut Post wrote these were “two of the best documentaries you are likely to see this year,”

Her first film, Se le moviò el piso (The Earth Moved Under Him) – A Portrait of Managua is the winner of the Havana Film Festival’s 1996 Coral Award for Best Non-Latin American Documentary on Latin America. The film explores how slum dwellers in Nicaragua’s capital survived series of natural, political and economic disasters.

For most of her life, Aghion has been a dual resident of New York and Paris. She spent the first eight years of her career in both editorial and administrative capacities at The New York Times Paris bureau, and at the International Herald Tribune. Moving into the film/television industry, she worked in a variety of capacities including videographer, production and post-production manager with filmmakers such as Richard Leacock and Valérie Lalonde, and for documentaries aired on major cable networks such as Canal+ and ARTE. In addition, Aghion was the Director of International Production and Development for Pixibox, Europe’s top digital animation house. She holds a degree in Arab Language and Literature from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York, and following her studies, spent two years living in Cairo.


Dominant 7
Philip Brooks
Laurent Bocahut
Producers for In Rwanda we say... The family that does not speak dies and Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda?
• Founded by Philip Brooks, Laurent Bocahut and Dominique Welinski in 1996, Paris-based Dominant 7 has established itself as a major player on the documentary market producing dozens of multiple-award winning documentary films for French and international broadcasters. Dominant 7 has created a strong network of independent production partners around the world. The company is moving into feature film and TV fiction. Recent productions include Don't F*** With Me, I've Got 51 Brothers and Sisters, by Dumisani Phakathi for Arte, SABC and BBC; SAPEURS, The Importance of Being Elegant, by George Amponsah & Cosima Spender for France 2, France 5, RTBF, YLE, SVT and BBC; Haiti: The End of the “Chimeres?, by Charles Najman for Arte; In Rwanda we say… The family that does not speak dies, by Anne Aghion for NDR/Arte; THE PRICE OF AID, by Jihan El Tahri for Arte and BBC; Points of View, AIDS Special, a live two-and-a-half hour broadcast for France 2; Madame Sata, a feature film written and directed by Karim Aïnouz, co-produced with Videofilmes Brazil, Canal+ and Lumière, selected for the “Un Certain Regard” section of the 2002 Cannes International Film Festival; Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda?, by Anne Aghion for Planète; 6000 A Day – An Account of a Catastrophe Foretold, by Philip Brooks for Arte; It’s My Life, by Brian Tilley. Dominant 7 is also the French co-producer for Steps for the Future, a collection of films from seven different countries of the Southern African region about HIV/AIDS, produced with over a dozen international broadcasters. "Philip Brooks died in early 2003. He and Bocahut produced "Gacaca". Bocahut produced "In Rwanda we say..."

Nadia Ben Rachid
Editor for In Rwanda we say... The family that does not speak dies and Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda?
• Since 1997, Paris-based Nadia Ben Rachid has edited dozens of projects, features and documentaries. These include Heremakono – Waiting For Happiness by Abderrahmane Sissako, and eight works by the renowned French director Yamina Benguigui, including her 2002 feature Insh’allah Sunday, and a segment of the acclaimed 1998 documentary Mémoires D’Immigrés. In 1999, Ben Rachid won the Editor’s Award at FESPACO (Ouagadougou Pan African Festival for Film and Television) for Sissako’s previous film, Life on Earth. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and collected numerous awards at festivals around the world, including the Golden Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival. She worked with Aghion on In Rwanda we say... The family tghat does not speak dies and Gacaca, Living Together Again In Rwanda? She has worked regularly with Dominant 7. In 1999, she edited Woubi Chéri, for Philip Brooks and Laurent Bocahut. The film took Best Documentary awards at the New Festival in New York, the Turin Festival in Italy, and the Transgender Festival in London. In 2001, she cut Benguigui’s documentary The Perfumed Garden which won Best Documentary for that year at the African and Caribbean Film Festival (Vues d’Afrique) in Montreal. Ben Rachid’s commercial work includes the trailer for The Michael Jackson Tour, for legendary producer Tarek Ben Ammar. Among her credits as assitant editor are Bitter Moon, Frantic and Pirates for Roman Polanski, Germinal and Uranus for Claude Berri, City of Joy for Roland Joffe, The Children of Lumière for Jacques Perrin, and The Conspiracy for Agneska Holland. She is currently working on Michka Saäl’s upcoming film Beckett's Prisoners.

Claire Bailly du Bois
Photography for In Rwanda we say... The family that does not speak dies
• With more than 25 years of experience as a camera person and director of photography, in fiction and documentary, Claire Bailly du Bois has worked with such directors as Agnès Varda, Sandrine Veysset, Amos Gitaï, Eyal Sivan and Nurith Aviv…

James Kakwerere
Photography for In Rwanda we say... The family that does not speak dies and Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda?
• James Kakwerere also worked on Aghion’s first film Gacaca, Living Together Again In Rwanda? For close to six years, he had been one of the leading cameramen at Orinfor, Rwanda’s national television station.

Richard Fleming
Sound Recordist for In Rwanda we say... The family that does not speak dies
• Richard Fleming is based in New York, and has worked as a sound recordist since 1990. He worked on Aghion’s previous film In Rwanda we say... The family tghat does not speak dies. His other documentary credits include Kofi Annan: Center of the Storm by David Grubin for PBS. Miracle Babies, by Academy Awards Nominee Katja Esson and Les Illuminations de Madame de Narval, by Charles Najman, both for Arte. Sumo East and West by Ferne Pearlstein, and Iron Butterfly, The Story of Imelda Marcos, by Ramona Diaz, both for ITVS.

Judith Abitbol
Post-Production Director for Se le moviò el piso – A portrait of Managua
• Judith Abitbol has been working in film in Paris for over 30 years. As a teenager, she made hundreds of short super 8 films. Over the years, she has written directed and produced numerous short films, experimental and art films and several feature narrative films, which have been shown at festivals around the world – Cannes, Montreal, Lausanne, Digne, Angers – and have received great critical acclaim. As one of the founders and executives of CHAZ Productions, Abitbol played a key role in the production of Se le moviò el piso – A portrait of Managua.

Martine Zévort
Editor for Se le moviò el piso – A portrait of Managua
• Martine Zévort is an editor with more than 30 years of experience editing numerous films for award-winning documentary director Jean Rabatte, and feature narrative films for Judith Abitbol and choreographer and dancer Pina Bausch. She has also worked extensively in animation, both as an editor and as a post-production supervisor. Zévort was trained at the famed Lodz film school in Poland. Se le moviò el piso – A portrait of Managua, is her first collaboration with Anne Aghion.

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