Jimmy Jean-Louis
He made his debut as a model and dancer.
He is now an ambassador at large to Haiti, founder of Hollywood Unites for Haiti to promote art and culture.
As an actor, he played the Haitian in Heroes and worked with Bruce Willis, Jennifer Lawrence, Monica Bellucci, Gerard Depardieu…
In the film by Philippe Niang, he is Toussaint Louverture, the slave known as the « Father of Haiti ».
Jimmy is also a member of Artists for Peace and Justice.
Coco Joe
"The light of the boards is ephemeral, that of faith is eternal." Coco was a Moulin Rouge dancer over 17 years. The second dancer of African origin after Lisette Malidor.
"Being black is not a costume!"(Josephine Baker) Coco pays homage to her elders, Lisette Malidor and Joséphine Baker, and apply herself to pass down their worthy heritage.
"France is home, the Caribbean is home, Africa is home, India is home… No matter where, if your body is home, then everywhere is home." Aware of the suffering of her ancestors, she evokes the memory of those deported from slavery and insists that their history is not deported to the archives.
Haile Gerima
Ethiopian film director Haile Grima was born in 1946 in Gondar.
He has been living and working in the USA since 1968.
He is a leading member of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers.
Since 1975, Haile has been an influential film professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
He is best known for Sankofa (1993), which won numerous international awards.
Larry Clark
He is an American filmmaker born in 1948, one of the leading directors of the L.A. Rebellion (also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers).
He directed the feature films Passing Through (1977) and Cutting Horse (2002).
He is also a film professor in the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University
José Vatin
After studying journalism in Paris he worked for the ORTF (The French radio) and for France 3 (French National TV channel).
He is a free poet and author of : La transgression du silence et La vie après l’indicible, 6 novembre 1942.
Gérard Théobald
Founder of 4Tan that highlights "Négritude" through films, books and photos.
Gérard Theobald directed several social and politics documentaries, he is the author of De Ducados à Maldoror, Retour au pays des rois nègres.
Ekaterina Desyatova
A Russian actress who studied Pushkin for 7 years and embodies the Poet's Russian wife.
Thomas M.Pollard
Actor, vocalist. UCLA Film School, L.A. Rebellion too. Dublin, The Abbey stage; Liam Neeson,Ray McAnally.
Spirituals with Jessye Norman, Bob Wilson in Paris, which became home. Steve Lacy Sextet Naked Lunch.
Known for Frantic by Polanski, with Harrison Ford. Worked on, worked in Gerima's Bush Mama, Larry Clark's Passing Through. Immortal and Penitentiary as Thommy.
Guem
Guem is a percussionniste, musician and dancer of Algerian origins. He composed Le Serpent, re-recorded in 1996 for the program Ça se discute on France 2.
Phil Darwin
He is a congolese stand-up showman, actor and writer. He presents the daily radio show Phil Darwin’s Theories on Africa n°1 (Paris).
Anyiam Kenneth Chimezie
A football player from Nigeria who emigrated to Russia 12 years ago. As he travelled across Siberia, people used to stop and touch him because they had never seen a man with black skin.
Bernard Oheix
Author of Café Croisette and la métisse du peuple des épines. He is the former cultural director of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes were he programmed African artists such as Salif Keita, Youssou N’dour and Mory Kanté.
Olga Kabo
A Russian film and theater actress who became internationally known for her role in The Ice Runner.
She loves and knows by heart Pushkin.
Raphael Confiant
French writer Raphaël Confiant was born in 1951 in Martinique.
During the 1970s, he became a militant proponent of use of the Creole language and he is one of the co-founder of the créolité movement.
Reacting to the Négritude movement, which emphasized the African origins of the Antillean people, the créolité movement emphasizes the diversity of Antillean ancestry and cultural heritage.
He has been a dean in Litterature and Human Sciences at the University of the Antilles and Guyana.
Philip Judith-Gozlin
"Love me or hate me, I won't stop shining"
He is an actor and Film Director and Producer. He paid tribute to Josephine Baker with an exhibition and a show for UNESCO and later produced a film about her.
Rodney Charles
Rodney Charles’ first screenplay won the Greater London Arts Advanced Film and Video Award. In 2016 he produced and premiered the documentary feature ‘In Exile’ at Toronto International Film Festival.
As a film actor Rodney has collaborated with notable directors such as Wim Wenders, Mike Figgis and Antoine Fuqua.
He is a founding member and the Vice President of the African Artists’ Association in Hollywood.
Mustapaha Boutadjine
He was born in La Glaciere, a popular suburb of Algiers. Mustapha Boutadjine was a student at Les Beaux Arts of Algiers in 1974.
There he set up and headed the design section from 1979 to 1988.
He was also a teacher at the school of architecture and urbanism in Algiers.
As an artist, he makes collages of revolutionaries, turning fashion magazines into committed portraits, such in the series called: Black is toujours (still) beautiful.
