Ekwa Msangi
Assistant Professor, School of Film, Television, and Media Arts
Ekwa Msangi is an award-winning filmmaker whose debut feature, Farewell Amor, premiered in competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The film won the Sundance Amazon Producer’s Award and the NYWIFT Directing Award; was acquired by IFC Films, MUBI, and Netflix; and earned her the 2021 Film Independent Spirit “Someone to Watch” Award.
She has directed for television on Disney+’s Growing Up, STARZ’s Three Women, and Hulu’s Saint X. Msangi is a 2020 BAFTA Breakthrough artist, Sundance Momentum Fellow, USA Artist Fellow, and ReFrame Rise Director Fellow.
Msangi has also spent many years writing, directing, and teaching film and television in East Africa. Her work centers on transforming representations of African cultures and supporting African filmmakers in telling their own stories. She is currently developing several feature projects, including a biopic thriller, The Dictator Hunters.
Courses
- Writing the Short Subject
- Writing the Feature Film
Creative Work
- Adé (in development) for K-Period Media. Based on the acclaimed novel by Rebecca Walker about the power of love and the limitations of the human heart.
- MOVE (in development), co-written with Cory Miller for Mandalay Pictures. The incendiary true story of the decade-long conflict between the city of Philadelphia and the revolutionary group MOVE, which led to an armed siege in the middle of West Philly and one of the most shocking decisions ever made by a city against its citizens.
- The Dictator Hunters (in development), co-written with Gareth Jones for Archer Gray Entertainment. Three human rights lawyers representing Chadian genocide victims are the first to successfully bring an African dictator to the International Criminal Court.
- Till, 2021, co-written with Gregory Allen Howard for Amblin Entertainment. Story of Mamie Till-Mobley’s fight for justice for her murdered son, Emmett Till.
- Farewell Amor, 2020, feature, drama. After 17 years in exile, Walter ?nally reunites with his wife and daughter and they quickly discover how the years of separation have turned them into absolute strangers. Sequel to the short ?lm, Farewell Meu Amor
- Farewell Meu Amor, 2017, short, drama. On the morning of the long-awaited reunion with his exiled family, a man is faced with the heartbreak of a di?erent type of parting - from his lover.
- Three Women: “Sloane,” 2024. Writer Gia convinces three women to tell her their stories; entrepreneur Sloane, homemaker Lina, and student Maggie are on a crash course to radically overturn their lives. Developed for Showtime by Lisa Taddeo and Laura Eason, based on the book of the same name by Taddeo
- Saint X: “Faraway,” 2023. A young woman's mysterious death during an idyllic Caribbean vacation creates a traumatic ripple effect that eventually pulls her surviving sister into a dangerous pursuit of the truth. Developed for Hulu by Leila Gerstein, based on the novel of the same name by Alexis Schaitkin.
- Growing Up: “Vanessa,” 2022. Created by Brie Larson and Culture House, Growing Up is an innovative hybrid docu-series that explores the challenges, triumphs, and complexities of adolescence through 10 compelling coming of age stories. Disney+.
- Farewell Amor
- Farewell Meu Amor