Judy Kibinge

Judy Kibinge is a Kenyan filmmaker and writer. She produced, wrote, and directed a number of films such as Something Necessary (2013), Dangerous Affair (2002), and Project Daddy (2004) which are her well known creations. She is also known for establishing DocuBox, which is a documentary film fund for African filmmakers to help them produce and distribute their film.

Judy Kibinge was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1967. Her family moved to Washington D.C. in America in 1969 when she was two. Her family stayed in the U.S. for five years. At the age of 7 she won a children's writing competition in America. For high school education, she attended Kenya High School before she moved to UK for her post-secondary education. After she movies to UK, she was first enrolled in Malvern Girls College, and then she attended Art College in Birmingham. Then she proceeded to Manchester Polytechnic and graduated in Design For Communication Media.

Judy Kibinge is an award-winning Kenyan filmmaker, writer and producer. Her film is known as depicting social taboos, violence in developing countries, and romanic comedy. Her film Something Necessary (2013) was screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, which is about a woman's struggle of living in Kenya after the elections unrest in 2007. This movie does not only focus on the character's mental states but also helps the world to realize the collapsed situation of Kenya, which started from colonization. She is also known for her documentary film called Coming of Age (2008) which she won an award at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2009 for Best Short Documentary category. In addition to that, one of her significant films called Dangerous Affair (2002) won an award at the Zanzibar Film Festival. Her film often provides real life problems as oppose to fantasy and magical imaginations. However real life problems she focuses on have a wide range. Her movies can be about personal issues between a couple which audience can easily be related to, and also they can be about social problems occurring in Africa such as colonialism, war, and hunger. As being known for documentary movies, her film style usually contains many establishing shots, which depict the entire city and people who live there, rather than keep focusing on one person's life. In addition to that, she is a founding member of Kwani Trust, which is a n African magazine based in Kenya.

Judy Kibinge began her career at McCann Erickson Kenya for eight years, where she was responsible for numerous award winning adverts. She was the first black Creative Director at the company in Kenya. She moved on from McCann Erickson in October 1999 to pursue her career in Film industry. She has written and directed a short film for MNET, and she also produced corporate documentaries for IPPF, Monsanto, and Technoserve. Recently she has been working on writing a book. She founded DocuBox with funding from the Ford Foundation in order to develop the skills of filmmaking for African Filmmakers, as well as provide funding, distribution and production support for documentary filmmakers.

• 2003: Zanzibar Film Festival - Best East African Production Award: A Dangerous Affair (2002)
• 2007: Kenya International Film Festival - Best Documentary Award: Coming of Age (2008)
• 2009: Kalasha Awards - Best Director: Killer Necklace (2008)