Daniel Danis (born 1986) is a South Sudanese film director and radio host.

Biography

Danis is half

Dinka The Dinka people ( din, Jiɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ) are a Nilotes, Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan with a sizable diaspora population abroad. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Jonglei to Renk, South Sudan, Renk, in the region of Bahr el Gh ...

and half

Nuer Nuer may refer to: * Nuer people * Nuer language The Nuer language (Thok Naath) ("people's language") is a Nilotic language of the Western Nilotic group. It is spoken by the Nuer people of South Sudan and in western Ethiopia (region of Gamb ...

. He was born in what is now South Sudan but fled to Kenya at the age of seven due to the

Second Sudanese Civil War The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originate ...

. He settled at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. In 2000, at the age of 14, Danis helped found the Woyee Film and Theatre Industry to perform plays to keep busy at the camp. The group wrote and performed plays that on subjects that spoke to the refugees like HIV, domestic violence and women's rights. It attracted attention from non-governmental organizations, which hired Woyee to make short educational films, and Danis learned filmmaking from

FilmAid International FilmAid is a non-profit humanitarian organization that uses film to educate and entertain displaced people around the world. FilmAid was founded during the Kosovo War in 1999 by producer Caroline Baron ( Capote, Monsoon Wedding ''Monsoon W ...

. After the war ended in 2005, the collective continued to grow and acquired an office in

Juba Juba () is the capital and largest city of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and also serves as the capital of the Central Equatoria State. It is the world's newest capital city to be elevated as such, and had a populatio ...

. Danis and others devoted the money they made from making films for UN agencies into buying a camera and editing software. The Woyee group rotated the main roles of director, cameraman, actors, and crew among different members. In 2011, Danis directed the first feature film in South Sudan, ''

Jamila Jamila ( ar, جميلة) is a feminine given name of Arabic origin. It is the feminine form of the masculine Arabic given name Jamil, which comes from the Arabic word ''jamāl'' (Arabic: جَمَال), meaning beauty. The name is popular on a glo ...

''. The plot concerns a young woman, her boyfriend, and an older man interested in her. Because the only cinema in South Sudan had been destroyed, it was screened at a local cultural center. It received an enthusiastic reception from the over 500 people who showed up on the first day, many of whom could not believe it was South Sudanese and drawing comparisons to

Nollywood Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in ''The New York Times''. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there ...

. In 2012, Danis helped launch the first film festival in South Sudan. By 2015, it had attracted over 5,000 students, audience members, and participants. Danis is also a radio presenter at Eye Radio in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

, and has interviewed notable figures such as former U.S. Secretary of State

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...

. In 2017, Danis opened a recording studio in

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

. He assigned the singer S-Bizzy to be the station manager. Known as Jam Records, the studio seeks to promote the work of South Sudanese artists based in Uganda.

References

External links

Daniel Danis, Author at Eye Radio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Danis, Daniel 1986 births Living people South Sudanese film directors South Sudanese expatriates in Kenya