Arthur Howes

Arthur Howes
Film director, Producer, Screenwriter
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv

Arthur Joseph Christopher Howes, film-maker: born Gibraltar 15 July 1950; (one son with Amy Hardie); died London 29 November 2004, aged 54 from lung cancer.

For Arthur Howes, films were his life - and Howes's own work bristles with vitality, a bounding love for the people who are its subjects and for the medium itself. Howes's trilogy of films about the Sudanese civil war (1990-2002) is documentary film-making at its best - journalistically accurate, visually exciting and humanly engaging. There is nothing difficult or worthy about Howes's work, although there is sadness, its main subject being what Howes called "the betrayal of the African dream".


BIOGRAPHY (MARFILMES)
Arthur Howes, (1950-2004)
Born in Gibraltar. Was a documentary filmmaker and an expert on Sudan; his work threw a piercing light on the civil war which has ravaged that country. He was a supply teacher in London, before applying for a post of teacher in the Sudan.
He found himself in the Nuba Mountains, where he was overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of Nuba culture, particularly the ceremonial boxing matches.
He returned home to England and enrolled at the National Film and Television School, where his graduation film, Kafi's Story (1989), was set in the Sudan. Made in collaboration with Amy Hardie, it is an elegant, humorous and vibrant piece.
The society Howes found in the Nuba Mountains was almost idyllic, but towards the end of the film it was revealed that the civil war was coming closer. Howes, was unable to obtain a visa to return.
He finally entered the country on the premise of filming government celebrations, and his subsequent film, Nuba Conversations (2000), opened with a surreal display of Sudanese government military power.
His next film, Benjamin and his Brother (2002), began in a refugee camp in Kenya, where "The Lost Boys" - children who had fled the conflict in the Sudan - where concentrate.

Filmography:
Kafi's Story, 1989 (made in colaboration with Amy Hardie)
Nuba Conversation, 2000
Benjamin and his Brother, 2002
Bachanalias Bahianes
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PT

Arthur Howes(1950-2004) Nasceu em Gibraltar. Realizador de documentários sobre o Sudão. O seu trabalho chamava a atenção do mundo à guerra civil que devastava o país. Foi professor substituto no sul de Londres, antes de se candidatar para leccionar no Sudão. Arthur foi para as montanhas de Nuba, onde foi fascinado pelas visões e sons da cultura Nuba, em especial pelo cerimonial extraordinário de combates de boxe. De regresso a Inglaterra matriculou-se na National Film and Television School, onde realizou seu filme de graduação, A História de Kafi (1989), filmado no Sudão, com a colaboração de Amy Hardie. Uma peça elegante, bem-humorada e vibrante. A sociedade que Howes encontrou nas montanhas de Nuba foi quase idílica, mas no final do filme iniciou-se a guerra civil do Sudão. Durante 10 anos Howes, que ganhou vários prémios com o filme mas foi incapaz de obter um visto para regressar. Finalmente, Howes entrou no país com a premissa de filmar as celebrações do governo, e seu filme seguinte, Conversas Nuba (2000), abriu com uma ostentação do poder do governo militar sudanês. Seu último filme, Benjamin e seu Irmão (2002), passa-se num campo de refugiados no Quénia, onde "The Lost Boys" - crianças que fugiram do conflito no Sudão, se encontram concentrados.

Filmografia:
* A História de Kafi, 1989 (com a colaboração de Amy Hardie)
* Conversas Nuba, 2000
* Benjamin e o seu Irmão, 2002
* Bachanalias Bahianeswes

Source:
www.marfilmes.com/pt/africadocs/a+historia+de+kafi.htm

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