# Dieudo Hamadi

Dieudo Hamadi (born 1984) is a documentary filmmaker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Born in Kisangani, he was a teenager when the Six-Day War broke out in the region.
His first short documentary film, Ladies in Waiting (Dames en attente), won the Pierre et Yolande Perrault Grant for an emerging filmmaker at the Cinéma du Réel film festival in 2010. The film was part of Congo in Four Acts, an anthology of four short films by emerging Congolese filmmakers.
In 2013, his film Atalaku  [fr] (Town Criers) won the festival's Joris Ivens Prize for Best First Film. In 2014 he won the festival's Potemkine and Société civile des auteurs multimédia awards for Examen d'État  [fr] (National Diploma), and in 2017 he won the festival's Grand Prize for Mama Colonel.
In 2018, his film Kinshasa Makambo won the Tim Hetherington Award at the 2018 Sheffield DocFest, and the True Vision Award at the 2018 True/False Film Festival.
His 2020 film Downstream to Kinshasa (En route pour le milliard) was named an Official Selection of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, the first film from the Democratic Republic of the Congo ever nominated. Due to the cancellation of the festival in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in France, it was not screened at that time; however, it was given an online screening for distributors as part of the Marché du Film. It had its public premiere in September 2020 as part of the Planet Africa program at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received an honorable mention from the jury for the Amplify Voices Award.

## Filmography

Hamadi's films include:
| Year | Film | Genre | Role | Duration (min) |
| 2010 | Ladies in Waiting (Dames en attente) | Short documentary on a maternity ward | Co-director with Divita Wa Lusala | 24 m |
| 2013 | Atalaku  [fr] (Town Criers) | Drama feature on Congo's 2011 presidential election | Director, screenwriter | 62 m |
| 2014 | Examen d'État  [fr] (National Diploma) | Documentary feature on Kisangani students | Director, screenwriter | 90 m |
| 2017 | Mama Colonel (Maman Colonelle) | Documentary on a female police officer supporting victims of sexual abuse | Director, screenwriter | 72 m |
| 2018 | Kinshasa Makambo | Documentary on Joseph Kabila's third term | Director, screenwriter | 75 m |
| 2020 | Downstream to Kinshasa (En route pour le milliard) | Documentary on war invalids | Director, screenwriter | 90 m |

## Awards

Hamadi's films obtained 16 awards and 23 nominations, including:
| Film | Festival | Award |
| Atalaku (Town Criers, 2013) | Cinéma du Réel | 2013 Prix Joris Ivens du Meilleur Premier film |
| Examen d'État  [fr] (National Diploma, 2014) | Cinéma du Réel | 2014 Cinéma du Réel SCAM Award 2014 Cinéma du Réel Potemkine Award, (Prix des éditeurs) |
| Mama Colonel (Maman Colonelle, 2017) | Berlin International Film Festival | 2017 Winner Prize of the Ecumenical Jury |
| Downstream to Kinshasa (En route pour le milliard, 2020) | Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) | 2020 Winner Amplify Voices Award Special mention |
| idem | Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival | 2021 Winner Silver Apricot Feature Competition |
| idem | International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights | 2021 Winner Gilda Vieira de Mello Award |
| idem | War on Screen | 2021 Winner International Jury Grand Prize |