Blitz Bazawule

Blitz Bazawule (birthname: Samuel Bazawule) is the first Ghanaian filmmaker to make the jump to Hollywood. After eleven years as a recording and performing rap artist, Bazawule expanded his artistic portfolio by making his first short film, Native Sun (2011), and it was six years until he made his second, Diasporadical Trilogia (2016), which he made as an accompaniment to his fourth studio album.

Bazawule made his feature debut as director/writer/producer/composer of the Ghanaian drama, The Burial of Kojo (2018), premiering at the Urban World Film Festival (where it won best narrative feature in the world cinema lineup), and released via Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY company and Netflix.

Bazawule’s second feature as director/producer was Black Is King (2020)—designed as a “visual companion” to Beyoncé’s album, The Lion King: The Gift, which she curated from the soundtrack for The Lion King (2019). Like The Burial of Kojo, Black Is King was also released on streaming (in this case, Disney+), but was an unusual collaboration with co-directors Beyoncé, Emmanuel Adjei, Pierre Debusschere, Jenn Nkiru, Ibra Ake, Dikayl Rimmasch, and Jake Nava, and with 20 others credited as producer.

Blitz Bazawule’s first feature as director that was theatrically released (by Warner Bros.) was the $100-million-budgeted The Color Purple (2023), screenwriter Marcus Gardley’s adaptation of the Broadway musical version of Alice Walker’s novel of the same title, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Fantasia Barrino, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, Louis Gossett Jr., Jon Batiste, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and landing Golden Globe nominations for Barrino and Brooks.