"It is very important to me as an African to reach out to other Africans and support their work."
Mojisola Sonoiki
By Mojisola Sonoiki & Monique McGlockton
British born Nigerian Mojisola Sonoiki is a miracle worker able to turn ideas into progress. She has been cultivating programs for over 20 years. Her organization, the African Film and Arts Foundation’s Cinema for the Culture: Film Screenings + Master Class Series took place over the spring and summer 2024 in Atlanta GA.
As an award recipient for a grant from Arts & Entertainment Atlanta (A&E) and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, the series featured films by award winning filmmakers with a Q and A to follow. Kicking off the series was a film by award winning filmmaker, Apolline Traoré entitled SIRA. It tells the gripping story of a struggle for survival in which the female veil becomes an instrument of resistance, in a film that represents a feminist counterpoint to current reporting from the region. The Q and A discussion was led by attorney Olivia Mugenga.
During black music month, THE JOURNEY OF THE MARIMBA explores the deep musical relationship between Senegal, Mexico, Germany, Ecuador, the United States, and Colombia, all through the journey of this magical instrument was showcased with a virtual Q and A from the filmmaker Marino Aguado and the director of photography, Andres’ Morales.
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In 2019, the African Film & Arts Foundation (AFAF) was founded. A 501 (c)(3) non-profit media arts organization dedicated to celebrating people of the African Diaspora through the lens of film arts & culture.
The goal of AFFA is to be part of the conversation as well as provide action-driven input in improving the image of the continent through the showcase of films that change the narrative of people of African descent. By integrating with Atlanta’s unique features, as a dynamic social, educational, artistic, cultural and film production hub, AFFA’s goal is to showcase passions, subtleties and trends in African cinema.
AFAF’s ultimate goal is to become a funding body, providing funding opportunities for filmmakers of African descent. AFAF produces the African Film Festival Atlanta (AFFATL) of which Mojisola has been the Festival Director for the last 5 years.
“It is very important to me as an African to reach out to other Africans and support their work. We are a marginalized group in the context of world politics, or anything else within the global context really, so the more we can support each other, the more our voices will be heard, our stories told and our problems solved,” Sonoiki says.
In 2023, she received on behalf of AFAF, a Resolution by a Georgia House of Representatives, congratulating and commending the Foundation for the grand occasion of its signature event, the third annual African Film Festival Atlanta.
Sonoiki has won other awards, including the series she produced entitled Indigo Tongues. Indigo Tongues is an interview series that brings the inspiring voices of dynamic people from Africa and the diaspora onto one global platform. Trailblazers have been recognized in their respective countries for contributing significantly in the development of their area of expertise.
Her production company Iyàlódè Productions, has produced “Occupy Naija: an insider’s view”, a short documentary about the Occupy Nigeria demonstrations of 2012; co-written a made for TV film “Mixed Feelings'' which aired on the cable channel Ebony Life TV in Nigeria in 2015 and produced an award- winning docu-interview series “Indigo Tongues'' which showcases trailblazers from Africa and the diaspora.
From 2005 – 2012, Iyàlódè Productions also produced the Women of Color Arts & Film (WOCAF) Festival, Atlanta at the historic Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture & History (AARL) who acted as a venue partner. The WOAF Festival was one of the first home grown arts & film festivals that celebrated the work and achievements of women of color artists and filmmakers. WOCAF’s document archives are housed at AARL and its film archives can be found at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York.
The WOCAF Festival partnered with other organizations including the Lagos International Film Festival and the Zuma Film Festival, Abuja both in Nigeria. As the Film curator, I programmed screenings based on that festival’s themes. WOCAF presented “Best of the Fest '' at the Zuma Film Festival where seven of the nine films submitted won awards including Best Editor, Best Cinematographer, Best Documentary and Best Foreign Film. I also programmed the film screening segment for 4th Women in Africa and the African Diaspora (WAAD) International Conference in Abuja, Nigeria in 2009, it being the first time the conference had such an extensive screening that showed films that addressed each of the conference topics.
In 2007, The WOCAF festival received a proclamation from the Atlanta city council recognizing the contributions of the Festival in celebrating the contributions of women of color in the arts and film.
Indigo Tongues received the Best Short Documentary award at the BronzeLens Film Festival in Atlanta (2015) as well as Best Documentary award at the Women’s Only Entertainment Film Festival (2016) for its episode featuring award-winning actress Adepero Oduye.
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion.”
-Mojisola Sonoiki
As an IT consultant (Software Testing) she has worked with NBC Universal, Autotrader.com, Digitas, Teach For America, Blue State Digital, Equifax and Farmers Insurance being some of her most recent clients. Still honing her skills in filmmaking, Mojisola received a certificate in Screenwriting from New York’s University School of Professional Studies and has been a judge for the International film category at the BronzeLens Film Festival, Atlanta.
She co-hosted/co-produced a Podcast called Not just Nollywood; which explored perspectives on Cinema, Music, Arts and Entertainment, of, for and about people of African descent and produced 13 episodes.
Having initially obtained degrees in Computer Science and Intelligent Systems, she worked as an IT consultant in the UK for companies like Compaq Computers, Price Waterhouse, and Glaxo. She took a hiatus from the IT world to pursue a career in academia and attended University of Birmingham in the UK for the MA program in West African Studies where she majored in Ethnography and Film.
Attending this program ignited an interest in Documentary Filmmaking and fueled her desire to pursue a career in the media after she was disappointed at how she felt western documentarian’s depicted Africans in a derogatory light.
Ms. Sonoiki has over 20 years’ experience curating, programming, and consulting on various film festivals and cultural events around the world. She is a founding member of the Black Filmmakers Magazine International Film Festival in London and also curated and coordinated the first of its kind sold out film festival of short films by Black women filmmakers called È wá wò (come & see): Sistahs in Film in historic Brixton, London. When she moved to the US, she worked with Women Makes Movies in New York City, a leading distributor of women’s films and videos in North America, where she worked as the Production Assistance Manager.
When asked about the experiences that inspired her on this path.
“I have been involved in artistic events from a very early age and music and dancing was my first love. From primary through middle school in Nigeria, I was a member of the traditional dance groups that entertained guests at our end-of-school-year cultural event. Then I was one of the organizers of the foundation week at my secondary school, the International School of Ibadan (ISI), which was a celebration of the cultural diversity at our school. At ISI, I was also involved in the Drama Society where I acted in plays, as well as a member of the school band where I played the recorder.
On graduating from secondary school my plan was to study literature in university as I loved to write and had been writing since I was two years old. But being from a middle class Nigerian family and being the first born it was almost an abomination at that time to want to be anything outside of a doctor, lawyer or engineer. As I was adamant that I didn't want to study any of these, selecting computer science was the closest I could come to appeasing my parents.
Still having the artistic itch, during my first year at University of Lagos where I studied computer science, I was the social secretary of the Jazz Club, and we hosted a sold out Fela Kuti show. I was the only woman on the production and I had the nickname "Thatcher" which in retrospect established my leadership qualities I guess. This definitely piqued my interest in organizing cultural events. As I grew older I knew my calling was not in the sciences but in the arts and I have managed to balance both ever since.”
The WOCAF Festival has partnered with other organizations including presenting the WOCAF “Best of the Fest” at the Zuma Film Festival Abuja where 7 of the 9 films submitted won awards including Best Editor, Best Cinematographer and Best Feature.
“At the Zuma Film Festival, the screenings I programmed included twelve films and seven of them won awards including awards for Best Editor, Best Cinematographer, Best Documentary and Best Foreign Film. I programmed the film screening segment of the 4th Women in Africa and the African Diaspora (WAAD) International Conference in Abuja, Nigeria in 2009 and this was the first time the conference had such an extensive screening that showed films that addressed each of the conference topics.”
The festival received a proclamation from the Atlanta city council recognizing the contributions of the Festival in celebrating the contributions of women of color in the arts and film.
“Over the course of the years, I have taken films that were shown at my festival, the Women of Color Arts and Film (WOCAF) Festival, to other film festivals where I have programmed screenings based on that festival’s theme. I have programmed screenings for two film festivals in Nigeria—the Lagos International Film Festival and the Zuma Film Festival in Abuja.”
Did you have challenges from your experiences as festival founder and organizer?
“I have discovered I have a good eye for selecting films that capture people's attention. I have gained the ability to organize large events successfully. I am very good at multitasking at the festival and typically, I run the festival as a one-woman show most of the time, with people coming on board to help a few months before the festival.
The challenges of running a festival of any size in any country is getting the funding to pay for the films that are to be screened, funding for bringing in the filmmakers to talk about their work, funding for paying the artist and her band to perform and funding to market the event. Another big challenge is getting committed and experienced people to work on the festival.
One of the big differences I find is that when dealing with artists and filmmakers from Africa, they make different demands and have interesting expectations as to how they want to be treated if they are invited to attend a festival. To some degree I understand that they are treated as celebrities in their home countries but at the end of the day what our festival offers them is a free platform to promote themselves and their work in a different country.”
Philosophy I live by: The philosophy I live by can be summarized by the quote below. I couldn’t have put it any better: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion.”
Up next for Sonoiki and her organization is the 2024 African Film Festival - Atlanta in the late fall of 2024. To learn more about AFAF, CFC and other programs, please visit africanfilmfestatl.com and africanfilmartsfoundation.org.
Social Media: @africanfilmarts @africanfilmfestatl #AfricanFilmArts, #CinemaForTheCulture, #AfricanFilmFestATL
