Andrey S. Diarra, a Malian filmmaker, received a $5,000 award for his project Renaissance

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

All the scientific and literary achievements, by generations of learned African scholars in Timbuktu, have been preserved in manuscripts that have been transmitted from generation to generation since the 11th century. Written in Arabic and African languages, they are little known, badly preserved and in danger of disappearing. The film recounts the history of Mali and the continent through translations of the contents of these manuscripts, including treaties, documents addressing good governance, medical treatises, and what might be the first ever Declaration of Human Rights, written in 1236.