DIRECTORS

Soraya Sélène (b. France) is a director and cinematographer in narrative and documentary film. Her work centers around intergenerational narratives, coming of age stories, and emotional landscapes, visualized through lyrical cinematography and a womanist lens. She is co-director of award-winning documentary, WHO IN THE HELL IS REGINA JONES? about ground-breaking publisher of Soul Magazine, a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary nominee. And co-cinematographer of HALF THE PICTURE, which had a world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The film delves into the variegated careers of women filmmakers in Hollywood and explores gender issues within the film industry. Her personal lyrical film, MARPESSA (in production), explores the legacy of her enigmatic mother, Marpessa Dawn, star of Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus (1959).

Soraya received her MFA in Directing & Cinematography from UCLA and her BA from Wesleyan University. She is a Brown Girls Doc Mafia member and a founding member of the International Collective of Female Cinematographers (ICF+C). Soraya is also faculty at California Institute of the Arts, while continuing to work on independent projects. She lives in Lisbon, Portugal with her twin children.