*How did you get into making films?
I have always said that it's important for us Afro-descendants to tell our own stories, without filters or intermediaries who try to adulterate our reality, only we know how we feel and how we perceive it. That is why it's interesting that in our community we create references with different perspectives so that we have a voice within the multiple artistic disciplines that exist. In the case of cinema, it is necessary that works are created from our perspective.
*What inspired you to make your movie?
Galsen, the language of souls, is the fruit of the need to narrate and express my history. The story of an Afro-descendant who is reunited with Motherland, the history of the duality of living between two worlds and not fit in any, of being a stateless person, a being in no one's land. From the need in my case, to tell the story of my rebirth to my unfiltered mother, from the depths of my being and leave that experience reflected in order to inspire people like me to tell their own.
*How has your style evolved?
It took me two years to complete the movie. I did not have any economic budget that's why I had to record it, direct it, compose the soundtrack, produce it, edit it and finally distribute it and promote it. The equipment I had was a video camera and a tape recorder. It sounds pretentious enough to want to make a film in those conditions right? I had a story to tell, something pure, translucent and real, that is the most important thing and the impulse that led me to realize it. I promised myself that I would do this film with what I had and that's how it was. Along the way I have been dragging and have been adding a cast of film professionals, musicians and artists, more than 70 people in total, who have given body to this story through their own ".
*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film? I almost got kidnapped on the border between Gambia an Cassamance... No comments.
*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?
Cool shiit!
*What can we expect from your next film?
I combine cinema with photography and music, all under the pseudonym OKOBÉ, this is how you can find me on social networks. I am currently working on the script of my next fiction short film in which I have been submerged for a long time and I'm working as a photographer and art director for international artists from here in London, designing their artistic concepts, from the cover of their albums to their staging.
