Oprah eulogizes Ghanaian filmmaker, Blitz Bazawule
American talk show host, television producer, actress and author, Oprah Winfrey, has eulogized Ghanaian filmmaker, Blitz Bazawule for his contribution to Beyonce’s Black Is King Project.
In a Twitter post made by the American superstar, Oprah indicated that Blitz had made himself proud and also hinted of the Ghanaian’s next major project.
After co-directing Beyoncé’s ‘Black Is King’ visual album, Blitz Bazawule has landed another gig to direct award-winning book-turned-movie ‘The Color Purple’.
The Ghanaian filmmaker came into the discussion after directors and producers like Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders, and Quincy Jones sampled his ‘The Burial of Kojo’ movie on movie streaming site Netflix.
Following their satisfaction after watching his work, they made up their minds to work with him on their new project.
“We were all blown away by Blitz’s unique vision as a director and look forward to seeing how he brings the next evolution of this beloved story to life,” Oprah is reported to have said.
Blitz is noted as composer and musician of four studio albums: Stereotype, Native Sun, Afropolitan Dreams and Diasporadical.
He co-directed Black Is King with Beyoncé and Emmanuel Adjei which got him a lot of plaudit from his fellow countrymen.
From #BlackIsKing to now #TheColorPurple, @blitzambassador has the perfect director’s brush for the next evolution of this beloved story. He blew us away with his unique vision for the upcoming musical film version and we can’t wait for you to see it 💜💜 https://t.co/foaMF74635
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) August 24, 2020
The Colour Purple depicts the lives of African American families and relationships in early twentieth-century Georgia.
The musical, featuring jazz, ragtime, gospel, blues and African rhythms, has a book by Marsha Norman with music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.
The original Broadway musical debuted in 2005, scoring 11 Tony Award nominations in 2006.
A revival in 2015 won Best Revival of a Musical and for Cynthia Erivo. The popular musical has also won Grammy and Emmy awards.
Oprah made her feature debut in the original movie and earned a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
Bazawule’s The Burial Of Kojo was premiered at Urbanworld Film Festival where it won Best Narrative Feature (World Cinema). It also won the Grand Prize at the 2019 Luxor African Film Festival in Egypt.
He is also the founder of Africa Film Society, an organization focused on the preservation and distribution of classic African cinema.