Karen Boswall

Karen Boswall
Nationality British
Occupation Filmmaker
Known for Marrabenta Stories

Karen Boswall is an independent film maker, known for award-winning documentaries that she made while living and working in Mozambique between 1993 and 2007. She is a part-time lecturer in Visual Anthropology at the University of Kent.[1] Her films cover a range of subjects that include marine conservation, popular music, women & HIV and peace and reconciliation.[2]

Career and work

Before going to Mozambique, Karen had her own production company in Britain. She has worked around the world as a sound recordist, producer and director. In Mozambique she produced many radio features for the BBC World Service. In 1999 she returned to directing TV documentaries with Living Battles (1998) and From the Ashes (1999), both concerning the recently ended civil war. Dancing on the Edge (2001) is a movie about the risks facing a young woman coming of age in Mozambique where poverty and traditional practices increase the risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS. It is the first made by Catembe Productions, her own production company, which produces educational and children's program.[3]

Karen Boswall's 2004 Marrabenta Stories documents young Mozambican musicians who play jazz, funk and hip-hop joining older men who play the more traditional Marrabenta dance music on a tour of South Africa.[4] Research into a joint project with Jose Eduardo Agualusa to make a film with a strong element of music about the situation of women in the cone of southern Africa, to be called "My Father's Wives", became the basis for a 2008 book by that name by Agualusa.[5] The book may be seen as the script for the projected film.[6]

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1997 Cracks in the Mask Sound 57 minutes. Documentary about the fate of Torres Strait art and artefacts in European museums
1998 Living Battles Director 52 minutes. Tales from soldiers from the civil war in Mozambique
1999 From the Ashes Director 26 minutes. In a small village in the south of Mozambique the people heal the wounds of the recent civil war
2001 Dancing on the Edge Director and Producer 41 minutes. Story about AIDS risk for women in Mozambique
2004 Marrabenta Stories Director 52 minutes. Documentary about musicians in Mozambique
2010 The Valley of Dawn Sound Documentary on an unusual religion in Brazil
2011 Grandma Sound Short film about children's misunderstandings of the subject of death

References

  1. "The Valley of Dawn". The Valley of Dawn. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  2. "Film 'From the Ashes - Mozambique's path to peace.' with Karen Boswall, University of Kent". Goldsmiths Anthropology Society. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  3. "Dancing on the Edge". Steps for the Future. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  4. "Marrabenta Stories". FIPA. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  5. E.J. Van Lanen. "MY FATHER’S WIVES BY JOSÉ EDUARDO AGUALUSA". Quarterly Conversation. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  6. Annie Gagiano (2009-06-25). "No facile moral binary between colonists and indigenes in José Eduardo Agualusa’s My Father’s Wives". LitNet Books. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
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