Osvalde Lewat, Cameroon

After serving as a journalist for several years, Cameroonian director Osvalde Lewat opted for documentary filmmaking. Her first documentary, entitled Upsa Yimoowin (The Pipe of Hope), was produced in Toronto in 2001, and denounces the sidelining of the American Indians.

The film that brought her international recognition is Beyond the Pains (2003), which deals with a prisoner who was sentenced to four years for a minor crime, but ended up being imprisoned for 33 years. Her next film, A Love During the War (2006) deals with raped women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her films have won several awards around the world.

In her latest film, Black Business, she addresses the question posed by Nigerian Nobel Laureate author Wole Soyinka: "They say Africans are not ready for democracy. So I wonder: have they ever been ready for dictatorship?" Osvalde will be presenting a free masterclass in documentary filmmaking at the Edinburgh College of Art on Fri 24 Oct from 2.00pm5.00pm and Black Business will be screened at 6.00pm on the same day.