Claude Haffner

Claude Haffner (Arabic: كلود هافنر; born 1976), is a French-Congolese filmmaker and production manager primarily direct documentary films. She has made several critically acclaimed documentaries including Ko Bongisa Mutu, Défilé Célianthe and Noire ici, blanche là-bas.

Personal life She was born in 1976 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo to a French father and a Congolese mother. Her father Pierre Haffner is also a researcher and film lecturer at the French Cultural Center in Kinshasa, which influence Claude to start her cinema career. Her mother Sudila Mwembe is from Zaïre (today's Democratic Republic of the Congo). At the very young age, she went France with family and never returned Congo. Then she grew up in Alsace with her brother Frédéric Haffner. His father has a collection of African art together with photos and taped accounts about Congo and Africa. He died in 2000, where Claude decided to return to Congo with her mother to meet her Congolese family.

From 1994 to 1999, she studied History and a University Diploma in Cinema and Audiovisual at the University of Strasbourg. In 2005, Claude completed her master's degree at Sorbonne University.

Career After graduating from university, she worked on numerous short films to learn techniques of filmmaking. In 2000, Claude worked as the Script supervisor for the short film La fourchette. Then she joined as a production assistant at 'Canal +', where she was able to work with Agnès Varda, her "mentor", on the editing of the film Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse. After the film, she developed interest to direct documentaries. Therefore, in 2002, she followed a training course in documentary filmmaking at Altermédia (Saint-Denis training center).