Leão Lopes

Leão Lopes (born 1948 in Ribeira Grande, Santo Antão, Cape Verde) is a Cape Verdean director, writer, plastic artist and professor.

As a filmmaker, he made the first ever feature of Cape Verdean fiction, The Island of Contenda (1996), based on a novel by Henrique Teixeira de Sousa. He is also author of various documentary including Bitú (2009) which was about the Mindelo native artist filmed in 2006, and São Tomé - Os Últimos Contratados (2010).In 1979, he founded AtelierMar in Mindelo, a non-government organization, dedicated to formation of a cultural capacity and local development in which still presides.He was Minister of Culture and Communications during the Carlos Veiga legislature between 1991 and 2000, he is currently deputy member at the Cape Verdean National Assembly and elected as MpD party.He founded the University Institute of Arts, Technological and Culture (M_EIA) in Mindelo and is currently dean and professor.