Darol Olu Kae
Darol Olu Kae is a filmmaker from and based in Los Angeles. Kae’s artistic practice disrupts conventional narrative structures of storytelling through its dynamic treatment of sound and image. His highly collaborative, research-based approach to filmmaking grounds itself in the nuance of black expressive modalities in America and challenges the medium to render the full complexity of black being visible in cinematic terms. Kae’s film work has screened at festivals and institutions worldwide including BlackStar Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Locarno Film Festival, MoCA Los Angeles, SXSW and Sundance Film Festival. He was awarded the Pardino d’oro for Best International Short Film in 2020 at the Locarno Film Festival for his film i ran from it and was still in it. And in 2021, i ran from it… earned Special Jury Recognition for Poetry at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival. Most recently, Kae was named one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine. Kae is currently writing his feature film debut Without a Song.
CV
*photo by Sam Lee