Blitz Bazawule

Known for: Directing

Born: April 18, 1982 in Accra, Ghana

Blitz Bazawule is a filmmaker and musician born in Accra, Ghana and based in Brooklyn, New York. Blitz's short films Native Sun (2012) and Diasporadical Trilogìa (2016) have premiered at BAM New Voices in Black Cinema. His debut feature film The Burial of Kojo was released in 2018, later released on Netflix via Ava DuVernay's ARRAY distribution company. Bazawule wrote, directed, co-edited and co-prouced the film, as well as providing the soundtrack. As a musician and band leader, Bazawule has released 4 studio albums under the name Blitz the Ambassador - Stereotype (2009), Native Sun (2011), Afropolitan Dreams (2014) and Diasporadical (2016) as well as the soundtrack album to The Burial of Kojo (2019) - and has performed at music festivals such as Roskilde (Denmark), Solidays (France), Mawazine (Morocco) and Sauti za Busara (Zanzibar). Blitz is a 2016 TED Fellow and recipient of the Vilcek Prize.