Joseph Gaï Ramaka

Joseph Gaï Ramaka (Jo(e) Gaï Ramaka/Joseph Gaye Ramaka, born 9 November 1952 in Saint Louis, Senegal) is a Senegalese film director, screen writer and film producer. Gaï Ramaka studied visual anthropology at the Paris School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and film studies at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies, IDHEC) of Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis. In 1990 he founded the French production and distribution company Les Ateliers de l’Arche, with its Espace Bell’Arte branch in Dakar, Senegal since 1999, a screening facility with Dolby Stereo, helping to create Arche Studios with computerized lighting.

His main feature-length films are Nitt... N'Doxx / Les Faiseurs de pluie, an adaptation of a story by Prosper Merimée, Karmen Geï (2000), an African version of the opera Carmen, and Et si Latif avait raison ! (And what if Latif were right!, 2006), a political documentary.

In 2007 he founded the New Orleans Afrikan Film and Arts Festival Project (NOAFEST) and in 2013, he created Gorée Island Cinema, a platform for collaborative cinematography, which hosted Gorée Cinema Festival since 2015.

Gaï Ramaka currently lives in New Orleans.