BIOGRAPHY I was born and raised in Kenya. My Polish/Romanian parents had settled there after fleeing Hitler in 1939. I attended schools in Kenya, earning My “O” and “A” Levels at the Kenya Girls’ High School in Nairobi, and went on to earn a B. Sc. in zoology, botany and chemistry at the University of Nairobi in 1968. While in Kenya, my main interests were in theater, film and radio, and I was involved in many local productions as an actress or on the production side. From the age of 16, I contributed feature articles to Kenya’s main newspaper, the East African Standard and also worked free-lance for Kenya’s radio station, the Voice Of Kenya, dramatizing and acting in radio plays. My life since then has always been involved in radio, film, journalism and teaching. After graduating from the University of Nairobi in 1968, I attended Bristol University, UK, from 1969 - 1970, where I earned a postgraduate Diploma in Film Technology and Theatre History. This entailed all aspects of 16mm and 35mm film-making, including camera, sound recording and editing. I was closely involved with productions at the renowned Bristol Old Vic and with the BBC’s Natural History branch in Bristol. During this period, I was involved in several award-winning student films as producer, camera and/or sound technician/editor. After graduation, I worked in London as Production Assistant for Maya Film Productions – an award-winning independent film company run by England’s renowned producer, Barney Platts-Mills.. In 1970, I moved to Hamburg, Germany, to work for the film and television production company, Windrose-Dumont-Time, on a series of 16 films on animal behavior. I worked closely with scientific experts for each film, translating their data into layman’s terms, and wrote the scripts for six of the films, all of which were broadcast world-wide. I also wrote and produced CHEFA JILA, a documentary on an Ethiopian village, which was broadcast on German television in July, 1974. Another product of this period was POWER PLAY, a black-and-white experimental film illustrating the futility of ambitions for power, which was screened in several Hamburg film theaters and was alter included in Alwaysi’s web-based Throwback Film Festival in 2002. I left the film industry because of union limitations both in the UK and in Germany. From 1972 - 1974, I worked as PR Manager for Polydor records in Hamburg, taking visiting music groups on tour throughout Germany. For the 12 years that I lived in Hamburg, I was also a free-lance contributor to countless newspapers, magazines and radio shows, writing (in German) on everything from pop to politics. I frequently read my own dramatized works of fiction in Hamburg’s many literary venues. In 1982, I moved to the USA and worked as a journalist and teacher. In recent years, I have resumed film-making. In 2002, I completed a 15mn 16mm black-and-white film titled SURRENDER which was selected for the 2002 Independent Film Project market where it was picked up by the Independent Film Channel and broadcast frequently for three years. That film is now being distributed by Renew Media. In January/February of 2004, I traveled around southern India and produced a “documentary” titled INDIA - AND OTHER THOUGHTS as a break-through model for Windows Movie-Maker for audio-visual story-telling using still shots, video clips, voice over narration, live sound and written passages. From 1990 to 2006, I have been filming my mother and my family for a documentary titled RIDING THE EQUATOR which concerns my Jewish parents’ extraordinary life and work in Kenya and which will go into post-production in 2008. During 2007, I shot, wrote and produced THE SWAHILI BEAT, an upbeat look at the fascinating history of East Africa’s Islamic coast, packed with indigenous music and dance and geared towards the educational market. This film is distributed by Documentary Educational Resources (DER). In 2009, I completed WALKING WITH LIFE - HUMAN RIGHTS, ISLAM AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN SENEGAL, which documents the work of an NGO called Tostan in bringing human rights education to the people of Senegal and many other African countries. My feature-length script titled EXPOSED – a post-9/11 thriller set in the Hamptons - is under consideration for development by LA production company Noble House Entertainment. learn more about me at http://www.rafikiproductions.com