Nuotama Frances Bodomo (born 1988) is a
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
ian
filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
, writer and director.
Biography and career
Born in Ghana, to parents who are both educators, Bodomo is
Dagaaba
The Dagaaba people (singular Dagao, and, in northern dialects, for both plural and singular
, update as of 25 May ...
. She was also raised in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
and
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
, before moving to New York to study film at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, graduating with a BA in 2010, and
NYU
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...
's
Tisch Film School (MFA). Her first film, ''Boneshaker'' (2013), starring Oscar nominee
Quvenzhané Wallis
Quvenzhané Wallis ( ; born August 28, 2003) is an American actress and author. In 2012, she starred as Hushpuppy in the drama film ''Beasts of the Southern Wild'' (2012), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, becomi ...
, premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival before playing at SXSW, Pan African Film Festival, and Lincoln Center's African Film Festival. Her film ''Afronauts'' (2014), inspired by the Zambian project of
Edward Makuka Nkoloso, had its US premiere at the 2014
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
, its international premiere at the 2014
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...
, and was included in the exhibition "Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016" at the
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
.
She was named one of ''
Filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
'' magazine's "25 New Faces in Independent Film" in 2014. She is based in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
She directed the short segment "Everybody Dies!" for the omnibus feature Collective: Unconscious (2016), which premiered at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival. It won Best Experimental Short at the 2016 BlackStar Film Festival. In ''
Film Quarterly
''Film Quarterly'', a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media, is published by University of California Press. It publishes scholarly analyses of international and Hollywood cinema as well as independent film, including d ...
'', Vol. 71, Number 2, in a Black Film dossier titled "Death Grips," by Michael Boyce Gillespie, Bodomo explains her 2016 film segment ''Everybody Dies!''. In 2018, Bodomo was a writer and director on ''
Random Acts of Flyness
''Random Acts of Flyness'' is an American late-night sketch comedy television series created by Terence Nance that premiered on August 4, 2018 on HBO. Additionally, Nance appears in each episode of the series which he also wrote, directed, and ex ...
'', an HBO series created by
Terence Nance
Terence Nance (born February 10, 1982) is an American filmmaker, writer, director, actor and musician from Dallas, Texas. He is best known for his directing debut ''An Oversimplification of Her Beauty'', and as the creator of the avant-garde TV p ...
.
Bodomo is currently developing the feature version of ''Afronauts'', which is supported by the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, IFP's Emerging Storytellers program, and the Alfred P Sloan Foundation.
Bodomo is a 2019
United States Artists
United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards.
Mission
The organization' ...
(USA) Fellow in Film.
Artists Fellow in Film
/ref>
Filmography
* ''Boneshaker'' (2013)
* '' Afronauts'' (2014)
* ''Collective: Unconscious'' (segment "Everybody Dies!") (2016)
* ''Random Acts of Flyness
''Random Acts of Flyness'' is an American late-night sketch comedy television series created by Terence Nance that premiered on August 4, 2018 on HBO. Additionally, Nance appears in each episode of the series which he also wrote, directed, and ex ...
: Season 1'' (2018)
See also
* Black Women Filmmakers
Black women filmmakers have made contributions throughout the history of film. According to Nsenga Burton, writer for ''The Root'', "the film industry remains overwhelmingly white and male. In 2020, 74.6 percent of movie directors of theatrical fi ...
Ghanaian Women Filmmakers
* Ghanaian Filmmakers
References
External links
*
*
*
Frances Bodomo by Katie Bradshaw"
Katie Bradshaw ''Bomb Magazine
''Bomb'' (stylized in all caps as ''BOMB'') is an American arts magazine edited by artists and writers, published quarterly in print and daily online. It is composed primarily of interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplin ...
''. July 9, 2013.
*
30 Under 30: Frances Bodomo, Filmmaker"
Mark Asch. ''Brooklyn Magazine
''Brooklyn Magazine'' is an online news magazine, focusing on "New York’s most populous borough through the lens of culture, community, commerce, arts and leisure." The company was bought by Michael Bassik and the website was launched in Decembe ...
''. October 13, 2016.
* "Death Grips" A Black Film Dossier b
Michael Boyce Gillespie
Film Quarterly
''Film Quarterly'', a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media, is published by University of California Press. It publishes scholarly analyses of international and Hollywood cinema as well as independent film, including d ...
. December 4, 2017.
*
Whose Place, Whose Space?: Extraterrestrial Stakes
Genevieve Quick, Art Practical. February 13, 2018.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bodomo, Nuotama
1988 births
Living people
Ghanaian women film directors
Ghanaian film directors
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Tisch School of the Arts alumni