Frédérique Cifuentes
Filmmaker Frédérique Cifuentes
Lives and works in London, UK
Cifuentes is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, photojournalist, curator and workshop leader with a strong interest in post-conflict recovery, geopolitics and cultural heritage.
Cifuentes has produced powerful films that aim to impact broadcasters, international institutions, NGOs, museums, galleries, academics, corporate clients and online platforms. Her work has been broadcasted by BBC Arabic, Al Arabia TV, Universal TV, as well as exhibited and published worldwide by The Independent, Middle East business news, African Arts, and ArmancoWorld, among others.
Who is your shero and why?
Fatima Babiker Mahmoud is a well-known Sudanese scholar, political activist and feminist. She published the seminal work The Sudanese Bourgeoisie: Vanguard of Development, (1984), in which she traced the historical development of the modern Sudanese bourgeoisie and concluded that it had no progressive role to play in the development of Sudan
She was a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Khartoum before she was forced into exile in London in the late 1980s.
She then taught development studies at various Universities in the UK and West Germany and offered consultancy services to many international agencies for development.
At the Pre-congress Meeting of African Women during the 7th Pan-African Conference in April 1994 in Kampala Uganda, she was elected the first chairperson of the Pan African Women’s Liberation Organisation (PAWLO).
Addressing the first meeting of PAWLO, she said: “African women share a common history, a common conceptual framework in understanding our reality in order to change it, and common enemies and friends within and outside Africa. We have similar challenges to face and a better future to look forward to. There is now a serious need for a new Pan African Women’s organisation, embracing African women on the continent and in the diaspora, to address these commonalities”.
How does the work you are presenting exemplify the theme of ‘sheroes’?
This is a 45-minute documentary film about the prominent Sudanese scholar Fatima Mahmoud Babiker. She truthfully delves into conversation and reflection about her career as a renowned authority on Sudan politics and women’s studies and her roles as an activist within the “womanism / Black feminism” movement.
