Film Director of “CITY” a Narrative Feature.

SOWANDE TICHAWONNA is an award-winning, independent filmmaker and actor from Washington, D.C. who got his start as a production assistant for the PBS series In Other Words with Ossie and Ruby, produced by acclaimed actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.   He holds a BA in Broadcast Production from Howard University and has over 30 years experience in broadcast television. A list of former clients and employers include C- SPAN, AOLTV, BizNet, Court TV, BET, NBC, MSNBC CNBC and Telemundo.   As a member of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers based in New York, Tichawonna co-founded the AIVF-DC salon where he served as chair of the organization from 1994 to 2000. The salon hosted monthly workshops and screenings that covered all aspects of the film and television industry.   His credits include executive producer and director of photography for the documentary Straight Up Go-Go (1992), and writer/producer/director of the short film Talkin’ Shop (2000) for which he won the 2000 Mayor’s Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist. The Mayor’s Arts Award is the highest honor the city of Washington, DC confers on artists.   Tichawonna won the 2010 Larry Neal Writer’s Award for his screenplay, The New “N” Word. Tichawonna also produced, directed and edited the short film, The New “N” Word starring Erik Todd Dellums, Rain Pryor and James “JJ” Johnson.   In addition, The New “N” Word received a 2011 Best Diaspora Short Film nomination by the African Movie Academy. Tichawonna attended the African Movie Academy Awards in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The New “N” Word is now a YouTube web series with viewership in over 25 countries spanning 5 continents.   As an actor, Tichawonna’s credits include starring roles in the stage plays, The Home and For The Love Oscar and the ID network series, Who The Bleep Did I Marry? He has also appeared in NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Netflix’s hit TV series, House of Cards, and the HBO series, Veep. His film credits include Mine This Christmas, N.O.S. and Nocturnal Agony.   He is currently in development on a dramedy TV series set in Washington, DC and is co- executive producer of the documentary, The American LOWS

SOWANDE TICHAWONNA is an award-winning, independent filmmaker and actor from Washington, D.C. who got his start as a production assistant for the PBS series In Other Words with Ossie and Ruby, produced by acclaimed actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.   He holds a BA in Broadcast Production from Howard University and has over 30 years experience in broadcast television. A list of former clients and employers include C- SPAN, AOLTV, BizNet, Court TV, BET, NBC, MSNBC CNBC and Telemundo.   As a member of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers based in New York, Tichawonna co-founded the AIVF-DC salon where he served as chair of the organization from 1994 to 2000. The salon hosted monthly workshops and screenings that covered all aspects of the film and television industry.   His credits include executive producer and director of photography for the documentary Straight Up Go-Go (1992), and writer/producer/director of the short film Talkin’ Shop (2000) for which he won the 2000 Mayor’s Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist. The Mayor’s Arts Award is the highest honor the city of Washington, DC confers on artists.   Tichawonna won the 2010 Larry Neal Writer’s Award for his screenplay, The New “N” Word. Tichawonna also produced, directed and edited the short film, The New “N” Word starring Erik Todd Dellums, Rain Pryor and James “JJ” Johnson.   In addition, The New “N” Word received a 2011 Best Diaspora Short Film nomination by the African Movie Academy. Tichawonna attended the African Movie Academy Awards in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The New “N” Word is now a YouTube web series with viewership in over 25 countries spanning 5 continents.   As an actor, Tichawonna’s credits include starring roles in the stage plays, The Home and For The Love Oscar and the ID network series, Who The Bleep Did I Marry? He has also appeared in NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Netflix’s hit TV series, House of Cards, and the HBO series, Veep. His film credits include Mine This Christmas, N.O.S. and Nocturnal Agony.   He is currently in development on a dramedy TV series set in Washington, DC and is co- executive producer of the documentary, The American LOWS

​Video Assistant | Student | Producer | Director in the Greater Atlanta Area

Film Director | Houston, Texas

Darnley R. Hodge Jr., is an award winning photojournalist and video editor with more than twenty years of broadcast and production experience. He holds an M.A. in Producing for Film, Video, and Television from American University and a B.S. in Mass Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University. His work has been featured on every national broadcast television network and many national cable stations and he has given lectures on media and film at George Washington University, Howard University, The University of Maryland, American University, and Prince George’s Community College. Over the years Darnley has covered everything from the Pentagon on 9-11, to the World Series in Anaheim, to the President of the Ivory Coast in Abidjan on his 2004 reelection campaign. He was a photographer on several Emmy nominated news stories and won a 2000 NABJ award for his camera work on Ric Young’s “Blacks in the Military” special. He has shot and directed several interviews with President Obama and he still regularly covers Capitol Hill and the White House for national news networks. Darnley has served as director of photography, director, and producer on numerous projects including news gathering, reality television, commercials, music videos, travel shows, and corporate video projects. He is an expert AVID, Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro editor, has Capitol Hill press credentials, and has worked as a photographer, editor and field producer for NBC, CNBC, and COX national networks and CBS and ABC affiliates in Richmond, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Darnley has also worked behind the scenes on international productions in East, West and Central Africa, South America, Central America, The United Kingdom, and the West Indies. As his career took him to more than 20 countries on five continents, Darnley witnessed first hand how the scourge of racism plagues the planet. He saw for himself how the darker skinned members of every society he visited, including the United States, suffered from disproportionate levels of poverty, discrimination and marginalization. In the wake of several extrajudicial killings of unarmed black men in the United States, Darnley became dissatisfied with the manner in which these events were being covered on many of the mainstream media outlets and he wanted to use his media access and news experience to address the issue on screen in a more meaningful way. So, in 2012 he decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in Producing for Film and Video at American University to further enhance his film making knowledge and expertise. It was there, while studying under the famous IMAX documentary filmmaker, Chris Palmer, that Darnley became inspired to create, as his master thesis, a documentary called Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder that would address the root cause of the racial issues faced by the worldwide African diaspora, particularly in the United States: the system of white supremacy. Suffice to say the project was a major undertaking with potentially dangerous consequences. But after more than two years of research, study, and interviews, the project took on something of a life of its own, becoming something far above and beyond a university project. After graduating in 2014 Darnley spent the next 5 years studying, traveling, and shooting interviews and footage for a new feature length film project addressing The American Legacy of White Supremacy. His latest film, The American LOWS, is the result.

​Video Assistant | Student | Producer | Director in the Greater Atlanta Area

​Brandon C. Thomas is an actor, writer and the creator of “The Golden Record”. He’s been acting since middle school and has studied at IDSA (Identity School of Acting). He’s had a lead role on the Investigation Discovery Network, featured in Cosmopolitan, POP Sugar, & BET. Brandon was also selected by NBC to participate in their hosting workshop partnered with ABFF in 2019! Before finishing his personal project, “The Golden Record”, Brandon had created many online viral videos that have showcased his talent. You can say that receiving millions of views through social media was his initial training ground. In the beginning of his YouTube career, Emmy-nominated actress/director Elizabeth Banks shared a video of his that spread across the internet. Her support is what helped catapult Brandon’s confidence to create even more. He one day hopes to meet Elizabeth and thank her in person. Most recently, Ellen Degeneres and Trevor Noah have both shared a video of Brandon’s that has over 13 million views online. Recognizing his knack for making videos spread, Brandon took his passion for acting a step further and started working on his very first short film. Through inspiration from actors such as Viola Davis, Anthony Mackie, Chadwick Boseman, and Gemma Chan, he continues to study his craft and hopes to be a great filmmaker that can inspire other creatives.

Mr. Martin is the founder and CEO of Nubai Ventures and The Moguldom Nation and the creator of the GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin podcast. A pioneer and thought leader in digital media, he grew Moguldom Media Group into a multiple-brand digital media and entertainment platform, selling three brands to Urban One NASDAQ: UONEK. Dubbed a “digital powerhouse” by Jet Magazine, Mr. Martin has been listed in the Ebony 100 list of most influential African Americans. His insight and acumen have been hailed in the press including Inc. Magazine, OZY Media — which described him as an “Emperor of Digital Media”, Digiday, and Fortune’s David and Goliath column. Highly respected in the digital media industry, Mr. Martin has received the prestigious EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015, amongst many other noteworthy awards. He is often cited as a subject matter expert in paid discovery marketing, which he considers an essential element to grow multimillion-dollar digital brands in the shortest time possible. Mr. Martin’s media career began with blogging on financial markets where he founded The Detached Trader. He attended Syracuse University College of Law and earned his Political Science degree from Morehouse College. A recognized thought leader in audience engagement and marketing strategies, Jamarlin Martin’s Moguldom now has a 10-year track record of launching and scaling successful digital brands while quickly adapting to market disruption and technological change, often ahead of the curve, leveraging first-party audience analysis and content marketing prowess to drive traffic, transactions and engagement.

Anthony (1992) was born in Ghana and moved to Belgium when he was about 10 years old. He studied film at the RITCS in Brussels and became part of a colourful artistic scene, doing commercials and music videos with a multitude of talented young artists. His work has that special something that allows it to go viral – his video Black Magic (Yung Mavu) got over 20 million views. His short films Kwaku, Only Us and BOI were festival favourites. Anthony has developed a young fresh style with an exotic flavour – a mix of sun and cool…