KINDRED SPIRITS
- Oct. 4, 2021

Join us on Friday, October 22nd at 2pm PT for a discussion about Black Women in Genre with celebrated author and screenwriter Namina Forna (The Gilded Ones) and filmmaker Sontenish Myers (Cross My Heart). Moderated by Film Fatales member Tchaiko Omawale (Solace).

Black women have had a significant impact in genre over the years, with a recent renaissance of novels by Black female writers being adapted for the screen. Come learn from filmmakers creating in this space. What are their inspirations? How has the film industry evolved and where do we go next? Genre is often used to explore taboo topics and socio-cultural perspectives from a new angle. Why does this particular space excite them? What stories do they want to tell and why?

This event is open to the public and will be accessible with live captioning.

RSVP HERE


Tchaiko Omawale My filmmaking practice is influenced by my upbringing as a Third Culture Kid, and the longing to transform trauma responses to racism, deaths, and constant moving. The magic of cinema especially fantasy was a salve. Themes of the in-between in the African Diaspora, its effects on the body and spirit, fill my work. Thinking through how to decolonize my filmmaking practice has led to me understanding my creative impulses for fantasy aren't escapist but a connection to African Indigeneity and its healing potential. This learning generates stories, ethical practices of care, a focus on process and intuition. There is deep listening to my body, dreams, and as a new mother, the magic of my baby. My cinematic work is shamanism, a portal to healing. My fantasy film Sita, exhibited in the Project Row House show Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter, co-curated by Simone Leigh. I workshopped my award-winning film Solace in a South African township. It was the first time the audience recognized self-harm in their communities with compassion. The film's community outreach also included a conversation about food, trauma, and the Black body with Roxane Gay



Namina Forna is a young adult novelist based in Los Angeles, and the New York Times and Indie bestselling author of the epic fantasy YA novel The Gilded Ones. Originally from Sierra Leone, West Africa, she moved to the US when she was nine and has been traveling back and forth ever since. Namina loves building fantastical worlds and telling stories with fierce female leads.



Sontenish Myers is a Jamaican-American writer-director based in Harlem, NY. She is a graduate of NYU's Graduate Film program where she's now an adjunct professor. In her work, racial identity, womanhood, power dynamics, and the heroic journey are often explored. She is particularly interested in doing so across genres, from dramas, science fiction/fantasy, to dark comedies. Her most recent short film, Cross My Heart, follows an American teen who upon visiting her family in Jamaica, discovers a secret that changes the way she sees the people she loves. The film has screened all over the world, and made its North American Premiere at Seattle International Film Festival. Sontenish was also awarded the Alexis Award for Best Emerging Student Filmmaker at Palm Springs International Shortfest for Cross My Heart, which was also included in Refinery29's list of The Most Exciting Woman-Directed Films At 2018's Palm Springs Shortfest. Cross My Heart won the Vimeo Staff Pick Award at Hamptons International Film Festival for its "outstanding performances from its two young leads and a nuanced directorial approach."

Sontenish was a 2018-2019 IFP Marcie Bloom Fellow in Film. She is developing her first feature film, Stampede, which has been accepted into the 2020 Sundance Screenwriting Lab, 2019 HIFF Screenwriting Lab, Film Independent Screenwriting Lab and IFP Week 2019. It is also a selected script on this year's Black List, and a recipient of SFFILM's Rainin Grant and Tribeca All Access Grant.