Profile
Sana Na N’Hada is a filmmaker from Guinea -Bissau. Sana’s filmography spans both documentary and fiction, with works that chronicle the historical and social struggles of his homeland. In 1967, he began studying filmmaking in Cuba, and upon returning in 1972, helped establish the National Film Institute (INCA) in Guinea-Bissau. In a cinematic career spanning more than four decades, Sana has bore witness to the best and the worst times in Guinea-Bissau. He joined Amìlcar Cabral’s revolutionary army in the heady days of the war for independence. In the restive years following self-rule, he set about making evocative films that captured and challenged the prevailing zeitgeist. In 2012, following a military coup in Guinea-Bissau, Sana and his long-term collaborator, Flora Gomes, swiftly collected archival footage and brought it to Berlin for digitization. In 2014, they returned to their homeland to present digitized films.
Sana’s filmography includes the documentaries “O Regresso de Amílcar Cabral” (1976), “Les Jours d’Ancono ” (1978 ), “Fanado ” (1984), “A Nossa Guiné” (2005), “Bissau d’Isabel ” (2006), the fiction films “Xime ” (1994) , selected for the Cannes Film Festival, “Kadjike ” (2012 ), and “Nome” (2023), also selected for the Cannes Film Festival. In 2018, Na N'Hada and Portuguese artist-filmmaker Filipa César received the Afield Fellowship for their project Mediateca Onshore in Malafo, Guinea-Bissau, a cultural hub preserving militant Guinean cinema history, fostering archives, workshops, and community gatherings, while promoting social, economic, and environmental justice in a socially and ecologically sensitive area.
