Suzanne Engo

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Daughter of African Diplomats and Founder and Executive Director of the New York AIDS Film Festival and President of Girl Behind the Camera Productions.

28-year-old Suzanne Engo first began her philanthropic work at age five, when she shared her Christmas gifts with local handicap children in her native Cameroon, West Africa. At the age of six, Suzanne spoke for the first time at the United Nations in the General Assembly on World Children’s Day, as the Junior Ambassador for Cameroon. She spoke at the UN each year after this, continuing her role as Junior Ambassador until age eleven. When she was twelve, Suzanne and twelve other women (including women from the UN) co-founded an NGO called African Action on AIDS. Suzanne first fundraised for this organization by creating “Jeans Day” at her dress-coded boarding school; (she charged students one dollar for the permission to wear jeans to class). At its earliest inception, African Action on AIDS (AAA) focused its efforts and resources on sending African AIDS orphans to local schools. Today, AAA has consultative status with the United Nations, and has provided education and health services to countless HIV- and AIDS-affected young people throughout Africa.

In 2000, Engo graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (with concentrations in Dramatic Acting, Sociology, Media Production & Cinema Studies). In 2001, she established a pro-social media and events production company: Girl Behind The Camera Productions..( who has participated in grass root promotions of films including Al Gores “ An Inconvenient Truth” , George Clooneys “Good Night and Good Luck” and Charlize Therons “ North Country”) . In addition to her work with African Action on AIDS and her production company,Ms. Engo also sits on the Planning Committee (sub-committees: Special Events and Media Coordination) for the DP1/NGO Conference, which occurs the week before the UN General Assembly each September, attracting NGOs from all over the world. Ms. Engo has also worked as a segment producer, director and host for BTHERE-TV, conducting numerous celebrity interviews (including Sigourney Weaver, Ron Howard, Kim Catrall, Cynthia Nixon, Jill Hennessy, Puff Daddy, The Roots, Destiny’s Child, Eve, Nick Lachey, Alicia Keys, Lina and others). She has spoken at universities, high schools, charity benefits and, on more than one occasion, at the United Nations.

In 2003, Ms Engo founded the New York AIDS Film Festival, which was launched at the United Nations as the world’s first HIV/AIDS film festival. This event occurred with the endorsement of the First Lady of the United Nations, Mrs. Nane Annan. In a speech made at the UN to launch the event, (sponsored by the WHO, UNAIDS and the MAC Cosmetics AIDS Fund), Engo remarked “My work is to give a gift I received 24 years ago to children: The possibility to dream; and know that the dream can become reality…I know that the media can be used as a tool for social change.”

Because of her well-known record of AIDS activism, Ms. Engo was selected by MTV’s Executive Vice President Dave Sirulnick to be featured in a 2003 MTV News & Docs television special entitled “AIDS: A Social History”; Suzanne’s message to youth around the world appeared in the closing segment of this program. In 2004, Suzanne was selected as one of the Top 40 Youth AIDS Activists in the world by MTV and the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation (a VIACOM partner in the “KNOW HIV/AIDS Campaign). On World AIDS Day, 2004, Suzanne’s photo and biography were displayed, along with others, on the MTV Jumbotron in Times Square.

In 2005, during the week prior to the Millennium Development Goals Summit Review, Suzanne directed and produced a media installation in the UN Lobby, which was attended by NGOs from around the world. Secretary General Kofi Annan personally penned a note of thanks to Suzanne for her efforts in this installation. Suzanne also was given the opportunity to address the 2005 US Embassy at the closing of the United Nations AIDS Day panel, performing lyrics from an Oscar-winning hip-hop song. (Video available)

Later in 2005, Suzanne partnered with Nevette Previd on the most recent installment of the New York AIDS Film Festival. The MTV-USA “THINK” Campaign hosted the 3rd Annual Opening Gala Red Ball of the festival at the famed TRL Studios. The 2005 festival honored Hollywood luminary Jack Valenti and MTV President Christina Norman, and was hosted by MTV News Correspondent John Norris. MTV chose the 2005 festival as the setting for the world premiere of “TRANSIT”, a film that follows the global youth connection to HIV/AIDS, (which was offered to all international broadcasters cost- and rights-free, in order to maximize the dissemination of its HIV-prevention message.)

The 2006 New York AIDS Film Festival honored Sarah Ferguson (Duchess of York), supermodel Maggie Rizer, MTV International President Bill Roedy, UN-AIDS, among others. The 06 Opening Film Night happened at the United Nations in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium and had a red carpet arrival that boasted A list Hollywood Actors Lucy Liu, Stockard Channing, Tea Leoni, Shawn Ashmore in a film that also starred Chloe Sevigny and Olympia Dukakis ( Film: Three Needles). Other guests of the event included MAC GLOBAL PRESIDENT and MAC Viva Glam Spokesperson Rapper/Actress Eve. The festival continued to be funded through the generosity of the MAC AIDS Fund, UN AIDS and still maintained its relationships with media companies MTV as well as others including HBO and other sponsors The Mayor’s Office of Film and Television, and New York University.

Suzanne is also currently producing a youth AIDS documentary entitled Maggie & Me, which co-stars supermodel and AIDS activist Maggie Rizer (who lost her father to AIDS as a teenager). Directed by Alexandra Kerry (daughter of presidential candidate John Kerry), the film will follows Suzanne and Maggie as they journey to each other’s respective countries to see the face of AIDS from two sides of the globe. Although differing customs, lifestyles and the literal distance between their continents may initially seem to divide the worlds that Maggie and Suzanne each have grown up knowing, the film will make clear that the suffering caused by HIV/AIDS is synonymous the world-over. Maggie & Suzanne will serve as symbols and guides during their filmed journey, showing the world the kinds of situations that all young people are battling in the face of this globally spanning disease. The film will highlight effective, youth-driven solutions to the worldwide problems of the AIDS epidemic, and each leg of the journey will demonstrate ways in which young people around the globe can take charge in the fight. Maggie and Suzanne’s journey will mark a new step in the struggle to defeat global AIDS: through effective partnership across cultures and races, both women are striving towards a common, selfless goal. Ultimately, it is this newest generation of young people who must have the strength to face the epidemic head-on, and, Maggie and Suzanne are emblematic of young people throughout the world, who this film will encourage to, themselves, become active in the fight against AIDS.

In addition to the Maggie & Me documentary, other upcoming projects for Suzanne’s production company include the launching of a “cause-related” denim jeans line, as well as releasing a new publication entitled Cause Magazine. This magazine, created in partnership with a major news ppper, will take a literal look at the latest “cause-célébre”, by featuring stars’ and celebrities’ favorite charity organizations and causes (rather than highlighting the typical celebrity junket tour of the latest film/album/television show). The cover of Cause Magazine’s first issue, already in production, will spotlight Alicia Keys and the non-profits to which she is most committed. Suzanne also continues to promote motion pictures and media initiatives that can be used as a tool for social change. She is taking the early steps towards a larger dream that she has held for some time: to create a New York AIDS Museum, which will serve as an HIV/AIDS memorial and education center, and which will also house the headquarters of the annual NY AIDS Film Festival for years to come.

Suzanne Engo is the daughter of H.E. Judge Paul Bamela Engo (Former UN Ambassador, and currently of the International Tribune of the Law of the Sea) and Her Excellency Dr. Ruth Engo Tjega (President & Executive Director of African Action on AIDS, and formerly of the Office of the Secretary General, Special Advisor on Africa). The Engo family divides their time between residences and offices in New York, Germany and Cameroon. Ms Engo splits her time between New York and Rome.