Issraa El-Kogali

Issraa El-Kogali
© Courtesy IFFR 2013, Rotterdam
Film director, Photographer, Creator of jewels, Communications officer
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv

I am a Sudanese artist working with photography, film, mixed media, writing and spoken word. My photography has been exhibited in London, Washington DC, New York City, and Khartoum since I moved to Sudan in late 2003. "In Search of Hip Hop", my first film was featured in festivals in Brazil, Nigeria, Sudan, Germany and the UK. I'm currently a guest student at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, Sweden developing an art installation project titled Nora's Cloth for which I received a grant from the Ibsen Foundation in September 2011.

BIO
As a communication professional and aspiring Sudanese artist I work with photography, writing, film, spoken word and jewelry design. Inspired by experiences in the performing arts, while at the American University in Cairo (AUC), I began to write plays. My one act play, "Rankle", won Mohammad Salmaway's New Writers Award at AUC's New Plays Festival. My interest in the performing arts led me to the Workshop Theatre at University of Leeds School of English where I gained an MA in Theatre Studies. Enticed by a scholarship, I went on to pursue a screenwriting MFA at Boston University, before returning to the country of my birth, Sudan.
I have lived in Khartoum for 8 years. In that time I've explored the East, South East, Southern and Northern States in Sudan finally visiting Darfur while on assignment with UNICEF in September 2011. The diversity of the Sudanese people is a continuing source of inspiration for my creative endeavors. My heritage is rich with mystics, poets who inspire me to find beauty in a country that has been plagued with upheaval and unrest.

Communication Professional 2006- to date
Artist 2004- to date
Filmmaker 2010 - to date

Source:
http://www.elkogali.com/about/#.UFCdga7nORI


FILMMAKER
Like many I had dreams of becoming a filmmaker… I took my time honing my visual skills and then took the plunge finally in January 2010.

During the first half of 2010 I participated in a workshop for documentary filmmaking at Goethe Institute, Khartoum through which I applied the visual skills acquired from years of photography to the craft of filmmaking. During the five month long workshop I worked on two productions as a camera woman and then directed and shot a film about hip hop artists in Khartoum. My film In Search of Hip Hop, was featured in the iRep International Film Festival in Lagos, Nigeria in January 2011. I also shot footage for a film by UNIFEM for the New York based director Lisa Russell of Governess Films and a film for USAID about Popular Consultation in Blue Nile State, in Sudan.

Film credits from Sudan Film Factory 2010:
Rababa Man, Directed by Mario Mabor
Diversity, Directed by Mohamed Hanafi, Maaz Negoumi, Nahla Mohaker

Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Media, Sports and Entertainment Group (MSE)
  • Gens de la Caraïbe
  • Groupe 30 Afrique
  • Alliance Française VANUATU
  • PACIFIC ARTS ALLIANCE
  • FURTHER ARTS
  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
  • RDC : Groupe TACCEMS
  • Rwanda : Positive Production
  • Togo : Kadam Kadam
  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
  • Africultures Burkina-Faso
  • Bénincultures / Editions Plurielles
  • Africiné
  • Afrilivres

With the support of