Soleil Spotlight

Riding the high of the success of British cult classic Kidulthood, the highly popular Netflix show Sense 8,  to landing the role of D in Yardie after bumping into Idris Elba in an airport, to playing the fallible character of Simon in HBO's I May Destroy You.  The actor and director Aml Ameen is in the house people!!! He  needs no introduction but we'll give him one anyway,  not only does he speaks to everything we champion at Soleil in his passion and ethos, but also literally speaks a little bit of Priya and Micha's language as someone who is British-Caribbean! Aml walked us through his incredible career path, from his hilarious anecdotes, to now directed and starred in the first all-black British romantic comedy holiday film Boxing Day.  This is not an episode to miss!   

Follow Aml on IG @amlameenbaby

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Credits -
Producer: Soleil Space
Hosts: Micha Cooper-Edwards, Priya Shanmuganathan
Guest: Aml Ameen
Editor: Cooper Conley-Currier
Music: Foreigner 
Outro Song: Ebo Taylor - Heaven 

Bantú Mama is making waves on the festival circuit having just closed this year's Third Horizon Film Festival. All the way from the Dominican Republic we have filmmaker Ivan Herrera. Ivan spoke to us about the moment he realized he wanted to be a filmmaker, his transition from commercial to independent projects, and unpacked why Bantú Mama is an ode to transculturalism.

Follow Ivan on IG @ivanherrera and Bantú Mama @bantumama.film

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Follow us on IG - @soleil.space
Check out our website to follow our work - www.soleilspace.com

Credits -
Producer: Soleil Space
Hosts: Micha Cooper-Edwards, Priya Shanmuganathan
Guest: Ivan Herrera
Editor: Cooper Conley-Currier
Music: Foreigner 
Outro Song: Fernando Villalona - Dominicana Soy 

Founder of the Caribbean Film Academy and Director of Third Horizon Film Festival ( one of the best festivals in the world)  we have  Romola Lucas with us. From marine biologist and geologist to now lawyer, and film producer.  Romola's story of perseverance proves to us that you really can do it all! Starting with her childhood in Guyana with its white sand and brown water and moving through.  And she also introduced us to our new favorite drink - swank! 

Third Horizon Film Festival is an annual celebration of the Caribbean, its diaspora and other marginalized and underrepresented spaces in the Global South - and is taking place right now, from June 23rd to June 26th. Check it out at www.thirdhorizonfilmfestival.com 

Follow Romola on IG @romiiluke  and Third Horizon Film Festival @thrdhrzn

Don't forget to rate and subscribe!
Follow us on IG - @soleil.space
Check out our website to follow our work - www.soleilspace.com

Credits -
Producer: Soleil Space
Hosts: Micha Cooper-Edwards, Priya Shanmuganathan
Guest: Romola Lucas
Editor: Cooper Conley-Currier
Music: Foreigner 
Outro Song: Damian Marley - Speak Life

Emmy-nominated director, cinematographer and founder of Capital K Pictures, Sofian Khan joins us with a truly beautiful and inspiring conversation. Sofian spoke to us about his desire to create multilayered diaspora stories of art imitating life, the incredible story of Afghan and Iraqi translators captured in his lauded documentary The Interpreters, and perhaps the most eclectic mix of Soleil Speaks we've had to date featuring both Lancashire and Pakistani slang! 

 
Follow Sofian on IG @capitalkpictures & Twitter @capitalkpics

Don't forget to rate and subscribe!
Follow us on IG - @soleil.space
Check out our website to follow our work - www.soleilspace.com

Credits -
Producer: Soleil Space
Hosts: Micha Cooper-Edwards, Priya Shanmuganathan
Guest: Sofian Khan 
Editor: Cooper Conley-Currier
Music: Foreigner 
Outro Song: Arooj Aftab - Saans Lo 

From creating concert visuals for Beyonce and Jay-Z, to being mentored by the legendary Director X, to having Will & Jada Smith as Executive producers, we have Jamaican filmmaker and visual artist, Storm Saulter. Storm takes us on his creative journey way back from picking up his first disposable camera as a kid in Negril, Jamaica, to making his award-winning feature films Better Mus’ Come and Sprinter. Storm is a true creative force who also seeks to embed the complex social and cultural dynamics of the Caribbean into everything he does.

 
Follow Storm on IG - @stormsaulter

Don't forget to rate and subscribe!
Follow us on IG - @soleil.space
Check out our website to follow our work - www.soleilspace.com

Credits -
Producer: Soleil Space
Hosts: Micha Cooper-Edwards, Priya Shanmuganathan
Guest: Storm Saulter
Editor: Cooper Conley-Currier
Music: Foreigner 
Outro Song: Elephant Man - Equinoxx 

Academy Award, BAFTA and Independent Spirit Award-winning producer, writer, director and truly gifted storyteller. The first-ever South Asian to win an Oscar in the category of documentary feature! What an incredible year it has been for Joseph Patel, as you'll learn from this episode. From changing his name Moneesh to a more  'white sounding' one at a young age, to hanging out in Questlove's apartment in Philly at 4am, to his most recent project on serving as a producer on the Sundance award-winning documentary Summer of Soul, Joseph's shared with us his ups, downs and everything else in between.

 
Follow Joseph on IG and Twitter - @jazzbeezy 

Don't forget to rate and subscribe!
Follow us on IG - @soleil.space
Check out our website to follow our work - www.soleilspace.com

Credits -
Producer: Soleil Space
Hosts: Micha Cooper-Edwards, Priya Shanmuganathan
Guest: Joseph Patel 
Editor: Cooper Conley-Currier
Music: Foreigner 
Outro Song: Power Show - Fela Kuti 

The name behind critically acclaimed film titles like Paan Singh Tomar and Neerja ( both produced by two major production companies Foxstar Studios &  UTV Motion Pictures)   This week from the land of Bollywood, we have with us Rucha Pathak, a multi-faceted Indian film and TV producer commemorating an eventful Women's History Month. In this episode, we're in Mumbai, India ( which produces the largest number of movies in the whole world) for a conversation with Rucha who walked us through her upbringing living everywhere from Nigeria to Ooty,  South India to Toronto, Canada. And takes us through her journey of feeling inspired to create more real story-driven films like critically acclaimed Paan Singh Tomar and Neerja, challenging the same stereotypes of Bollywood, and her desire to see more women in front and behind the scenes of films across the seas. 

Follow Rucha on IG @roo_cha to learn more about what she's doing. And check out the Indian Memory Project - www.indianmemoryproject.com

Don't forget to rate and subscribe!
Follow us on IG - @soleil.space
Check out our website to follow our work - www.soleilspace.com

Credits -
Producer: Soleil Space
Hosts: Micha Cooper-Edwards, Priya Shanmuganathan
Guest: Rucha Pathak
Editor: Cooper Conley-Currier
Music: Foreigner 
Outro Song: Zingaat - Ajay-Atul, Ajay Gogavale, Atul Gogavale

With 6 Oscar wins and 32 Oscar-nominated films, The true definition of a powerhouse boss lady is Brenda Gilbert.  Behind various notable film titles like  The Joker, Judas & The Black Messiah,&  Queen & Slim. We have her with us straight from Vancouver conversing with us about her early aspirations to become an actress, but (didn't quite like being in the limelight) to pivoting to start an entertainment company; BRON Studios.  Her Fiji roots but being a chameleon wherever she went, her immigration to Canada,  the importance of why women should empower themselves and other women within the film industry, and the 4 P's she uses as a  guide for her life.  

Check out www.bronstudios.com to learn more about Brenda's work, and follow Brenda on IG @brendaagilbert. 

Don't forget to rate and subscribe!
Follow us on IG - @soleil.space
Check out our website to follow our work - www.soleilspace.com

Credits -
Producer: Soleil Space
Hosts: Micha Cooper-Edwards, Priya Shanmuganathan
Guest: Brenda Gilbert
Editor: Cooper Conley-Currier
Music: Foreigner 
Outro Song: One Love - Bob Marley

Peabody, IDA, & PGA-nominated producer Toni Kamau is setting the records as the youngest female documentary producer to be invited to the Academy.  Toni taught us about Sheng ( a slang language originating from the mix of Swahili and English),. In her latest film Softie, Toni humanizes and captures Boniface Mwangi the infamous political activist from Kenya in a point of view no one has ever seen before, her process of unlearning and unpacking the effects of the western gaze in storytelling, being a part of the first tv show to tackle human rights topics like; the LGBT, land, socioeconomic issues in Africa, and the impact of putting African stories on the much more global screen. 
 
Check out www.wearenothemachine.com to learn more about Toni's work. 

Don't forget to rate and subscribe!
Follow us on IG - @soleil.space
Check out our website to follow our work - www.soleilspace.com

Credits -
Producer: Soleil Space
Hosts: Micha Cooper-Edwards, Priya Shanmuganathan
Guest: Toni Kamau 
Editor: Cooper Conley-Currier
Music: Foreigner 
Outro Song: Marathon Runner - Nyashinski

We are back! And what better way to give you a taste of what is to come in Season 2, than to give you an insight into the mind behind Soleil - your Soleil Spotlight co-host, Micha Cooper-Edwards. In this episode, we turn the spotlight on ourselves as Micha takes us through her journey from Trinidad to the US, her wide-spanning career at Nike, her career switch into the media industry exploring Nigerian film in London, and finally the reason she brought Soleil into the world.

Follow Micha @michacooperedwards to learn more about the woman behind it all.

Don't forget to rate and subscribe!
Follow us on IG - @soleil.space
Check out our website to follow our work - www.soleilspace.com

Credits -
Producer: Soleil Space
Hosts: Priya Shanmuganathan, Cora Atkinson
Guest: Micha Cooper-Edwards
Editor: Cooper Conley-Currier
Music: Foreigner 
Outro Song: Trini 2 De Bone - David Rudder