Team

Artistic direction and Program

Alex Moussa Sawadogo (Burkina Faso/Germany)

Alex Moussa Sawadogo studied art history in Ouagadougou and cultural and media management in Hamburg, specialising in dance and film. He has worked in numerous cultural institutions in Burkina Faso, including the pan-African film festival FESPACO. In 2005, he was the press and cultural officer of the Burkina Faso embassy in Berlin. He conceived and curated the dance festivals “Border Border Express” (2011), “Moussokouma” (2013), “Sleepless Nights” (2016) and “Timbuktu is Back!” (2019) at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, as curator also at: Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, German Film Focus (South Africa), Afrotech (Dortmund) and 2012-2015 as artistic advisor for the programme “Open Doors” at the Festival del Film Locarno. In 2014, he conceived the symposium “Africa Archive – Africa Future” with ITI Germany for the festival “Theater der Welt” in Mannheim. Since 2019, he has been artistic director of the Festival cinémas d’Afrique Lausanne.

Sawadogo founded the film festival AFRIKAMERA together with Uta Rügner and Florian Wachinger in 2007 and has been its artistic director ever since. In 2016, he also took over the artistic direction of the Ouaga Film Lab in Burkina Faso. Besides, he is the fund manager of the Jeune Création Francophone fund, created in 2018. In October 2020, the Ministry of Culture of Burkina Faso appointed Alex Moussa Sawadogo as the new director of the FESPACO Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou.

Project Management and Finance

Uta Rügner

After graduating in Slavic and Cultural Studies in 1996, Uta Rügner was head of public relations at tRÄNENpALAST Veranstaltungs GmbH, KULTURBRAUEREI GmbH and Kesselhaus GmbH. With Hahn Produktion, she was project and production manager for the ‘Russian Cultural Days in Germany 03/04’, an international cultural dialogue commissioned by the Federal Foreign Office and the State of Berlin. She currently heads the project finance department of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, produces AFRIKAMERA – Contemporary Cinema from Africa with the team from toucouleur e.V., does cultural policy lobbying on the board of Festiwelt e.V., works with fabrikpublik as a PR and cultural manager for cultural and film festivals (including Karneval der Kulturen, Schloss Biesdorf, Alfilm-Arabisches Filmfestival) and clients from the cultural, educational and social sectors. She advises associations, initiatives and independent artists on the conception of funding applications and the administration of funds and is active in supporting refugees on a voluntary basis.

Concept and Communication 

Florian Wachinger

Florian Wachinger studied cultural studies in Berlin and London as well as cultural management in Hamburg. He works as a cultural manager, curator and journalist, engaging in film, music and contemporary art. During the past year he was responsible as (co)curator for the film retrospectives „Musik- Stadt – Berlin“ and „Berlin Rewind“ as part of actung berlin / Berlin Music Week, as well as the film series „Tonspuren – Filme hören“, a part of MaerzMusik 2011. As a cultural manager with focus on production he works for international music and arts festivals, such as SOUND EXCHANGE and documenta. At AFRIKAMERA he is responsible for PR and communication as well as text and concept development.

PR / Festival Coordinator

Christiane Dramé

Christiane Dramé studied German, Political and Italian Studies in Berlin and Trieste. After a radio traineeship she built Germany’s first 24-hour jazz broadcaster JazzRadio Berlin, where she u.a. was responsible for the PR. For six years she headed the press office of tRÄNENpALAST Veranstaltungs GmbH. Since 2006 she has worked as a freelance PR specialist with a focus on culture and education and has been responsible for numerous festivals and cultural projects in Berlin and beyond. In Luxembourg, she was involved in various projects within the framework of „Luxembourg and the Greater Region – European Capital of Culture 2007“. For toucouleur e.V. she is responsible for the PR for contemporary African dance in cooperation with the HAU – Hebbel am Ufer, and she is also responsible for PR for the film festivals AFRIKAMERA and ALFILM – Arabian Film Festival. In the area of ​​cultural education, she coordinated the public relations work for the „Week of Language and Reading“ in 2012, initiated by integration expert Kazim Erdogan. In addition, she works as a PR lecturer for further education providers.

Production

Mandy Okereke

Mandy Okereke studied African Area Studies at HU Berlin and Art History in a global context with a focus on Africa. She’s been traveling through several west African countries for research on a regular basis. In 2010 she started working in the event service at HKW and later worked at the in-house bookshop. In 2013 she completed an internship at the Guinea Conakry branch of the French publisher L’Harmattan. She’s been a member of the production team of Afrikamera since 2015.

Guestmanagement

Social Media

Program Coordination

Tatjana Arens

Tatjana Arens studied philosophy and theater studies at the University of Leipzig, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle 3 in Paris and at the FU Berlin. Since 2015 she is cooperator at the Festspielhaus Afrika gGmbH, the project Operndorf Afrika initiated by Christoph Schlingensief, where she led several events, among others for the HKW Berlin and the Frieze London. Since 2016 she is collaborator for Afrikamera. Tatjana Arens lives and works in Berlin.