Sam Soko (born 29 June 1985) is a Kenyan documentary filmmaker, director, producer, editor, and co-founder of the Nairobi-based production company LBx Africa.[1] His debut feature documentary Softie premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing.
He has also co-directed Free Money (2022)[2] with Lauren DeFilippo and produced No Simple Way Home (2022)], directed by Akuol de Mabior and Matabeleland (2025),[3] directed by Nyasha Kadandara.
Sam Soko was born and raised in Kisii, Kenya. He attended Maseno School for secondary education before enrolling at Moi University in Eldoret, where he studied Creative Arts with a focus on theatre and film.
Because the university lacked film production equipment at the time, he majored in theatre while continuing to explore storytelling through writing and directing plays.
In 2008, Soko moved to Nairobi for his industrial attachment at Phoenix Players, a repertory theatre company. After completing his attachment, he graduated from Moi University and later returned to Phoenix Players, which would become central to the start of his career.
Career
Soko began his professional career in 2009 as a stage manager at Phoenix Players, where he worked until 2011. Alongside stage management, he wrote and directed original plays and adaptations, drawing inspiration from existential and absurdist writers such as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Albert Camus, and James Baldwin. These influences shaped his interest in deconstructing narrative structures, an approach that later informed his documentary practice, including Softie.
During his time at Phoenix, Soko was introduced to documentary filmmaking when a colleague invited him to assist with editing. He soon began scripting and editing nonprofit documentaries while immersing himself in the form by watching and reading extensively.
In October 2012, Soko co-founded the Nairobi-based production company LBx Africa[7] with Bramwel Iro, Linda Wamalwa, and Brian Byaruhanga. Through the company, he worked across directing, producing, and editing roles on short films, documentaries, and creative projects before gaining international recognition with his debut feature documentary Softie (2020).
Softie (2020)
Soko directed and produced Softie,[8] his debut feature-length documentary, filmed over seven years. The film follows Kenyan activist and photojournalist Boniface Mwangi as he campaigns for political office, balancing activism with family responsibilities.
The project originated in 2013 as a series of short activist training videos before expanding into a feature-length documentary as Mwangi entered the 2017 campaign.[9] In 2017, Soko was selected as a Hot Docs–Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund recipient/fellow,[10] which provided mentorship, funding and festival-market connections that helped advance Softie.
In interviews, Soko has said his access and trust with Mwangi's family grew from shared experiences in protests; he also described how the family were initially cautious about exposing private life but later opened up, allowing the film to interweave public activism and intimate domestic scenes.[11][12] Production was carried out with security precautions because of safety concerns; Soko and the team used discreet production methods and later completed editing with partners in Canada.[13]
Critics noted the film's balance of political confrontation and private life: Variety called it "a riveting run through Kenya's bloody political battlefield" and also "an equally moving marriage story,"[14] while the Financial Times highlighted the film's attention to Mwangi's wife and family dynamics.[15]
The idea for the film dates back to late 2018, when Akuol first met producer Sam Soko and pitched him the concept, "at the end of 2018, when I met my producer Sam Soko … I kind of pitched him this idea and hijacked his other one. So then we started on it after I finished university."[16]
Working closely together, Akuol described Soko as her "filmmaking confidante," saying he was "unwavering in his confidence in the story, right from the start up to the very end."[17]
Production involved a predominantly female African crew and was supported by funders including The Whickers,[18] Doc Society,[19] Docubox, the IDFA Bertha Fund, Documentary Africa, and STEPS as part of the Generation Africa anthology.[20]
The documentary premiered in 2022 at the Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section.[21] In interviews, Akuol has emphasized that Soko's belief in the story was unwavering throughout the process.[22]
Free Money (2022)
Soko co-directed Free Money[23] with American filmmaker Lauren DeFilippo. The film follows a universal basic income (UBI) experiment in the Kenyan village of Kogutu, launched by the U.S. nonprofit GiveDirectly.[24]
DeFilippo first secured access to the project, but it was Soko's rural Kenyan background and political filmmaking experience that grounded the story in local realities. [25]He later recalled being "skeptical about the whole thing from the start, giving people money," explaining that his role was to ensure villagers were portrayed with dignity rather than as data points in an economic trial.[26]
The documentary moves between Silicon Valley boardrooms and the daily lives of Kogutu's residents, capturing the optimism of donors as well as the unease of those living with the program. In interviews, Soko emphasized that unconditional cash transfers can relieve poverty but "we cannot pretend that money alone will solve structural problems." [27] As he told Deadline, his concern was showing people "not just as statistics, but with their full dignity." Critics later noted how this dual perspective shaped the film's balance of empathy and skepticism.
Free Money premiered at the[28] Toronto International Film Festival, before screening at events including CPH:DOX, Sydney Film Festival, and the Durban International Film Festival. Variety described it as "an absorbing, often troubling look at aid, economics and inequality,"[29] while The Hollywood Reporter highlighted its "measured balance of empathy and skepticism."[30] The film was covered internationally in outlets such as IndieWire, Screen Daily, and The Guardian, and sparked further debate through features on Al Jazeera's The Stream, the ILO Voices podcast, and VOA Africa. It is currently available to watch on Netflix Africa.
The Battle For Laikipia (2024)
Soko served as editor on The Battle for Laikipia,[31] a feature-length documentary directed by Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi. The film investigates the unresolved historical injustices and climate pressures shaping Kenya's Laikipia region, where Indigenous Samburu pastoralists and white landowners clash over land, water, and legacy.
What began as a short idea grew into a seven-year journey: five years of filming across Laikipia's unforgiving landscapes and two years of intensive editing. The project drew from more than 300 hours of footage, carefully shaped into a narrative that balances empathy and critique. [32]As Nation Africa reported, audiences have responded strongly to the way the film "unearths the human heart of a conflict often flattened into headlines of violence and displacement."[33]
In an interview with Adobe,[34] Soko reflected on his editorial process, noting that his favorite sequence was that of Simeon, a Samburu pastoralist. Capturing Simeon's nomadic life, he explained, required visually and emotionally conveying constant movement and community dynamics, a challenge that was both complex and rewarding.
He described how he and his assistant editor, Jordan Inaan, created an organized system for translations, sequence building, and reviews, which allowed them to manage vast amounts of multilingual footage while collaborating remotely with directors on different continents. Using Adobe Premiere Pro's transcription and captioning tools, he emphasized, was crucial in maintaining clarity and dignity for all subjects. Beyond the technicalities, Soko also highlighted how his creative drive comes from the history and resilience of African communities, insisting that "Africa is rising" despite structural challenges to art and storytelling.[35]
Critics praised how his editing shaped the balance between aesthetic and substance. The Guardian called the film "visually striking and carefully edited," adding that it "allows both sides to voice their positions." [36]Film Review Daily described the documentary as "haunting and impressive", highlighting how it shows both Samburu pastoralists and white ranchers' perspectives in vivid detail, particularly in how cattle are central to Samburu life and the challenges created by colonial-legacies and drought.[37]
The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, produced by Toni Kamau with executive producers Roger Ross Williams and Geoff Martz. Business Doc Europe noted that the film's deep access to all sides leaves no obvious villains, instead encouraging viewers to shift perspectives. Producer Toni Kamau emphasized how its themes of climate change, land rights, and colonial legacies are reflective of disputes "in many other places across the world."[38]
Matabeleland (2025)
Soko produced Matabeleland,[39] the debut feature documentary of Zimbabwean filmmaker Nyasha Kadandara.
L - R Matabeleland Editor, Jordan Inaan, Director, Nyasha Kadandara and Producer, Sam Soko at the film's World Premiere at CPH:DOX 2025
The film follows Chris, a 60-year-old immigrant in Botswana who believes his family's struggles stem from the unresolved burial of his father, a victim of the Gukurahundi massacres in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland region during the 1980s. As Chris begins a relationship with his partner Dumi and reconnects with efforts to exhume and rebury the dead, the documentary explores themes of masculinity, intergenerational trauma, and historical silence.[40]
The project began as a short film before Soko encouraged Kadandara to expand it into a feature, a process that took seven years to complete. [41]For Soko, the film carried a personal resonance: on the Pure Nonfiction podcast he explained that Chris's vulnerability reminded him of his own father, and that the project aligned with his wider goal of supporting first-time filmmakers from the Global South Pure Nonfiction. He has described the production as both an act of collaboration and an effort to encourage greater South–South exchange in documentary filmmaking.[42]
Audiences and critics have emphasized the rarity of its portrayal of African masculinity, with viewers often responding by wanting to share the film across generations of men in their families.[43] At the same time, commentary highlighted its political urgency and intimate storytelling; Sinema Focus praised it as a film that "carries the past, confronts the present and cradles the future"[44]
The documentary premiered at CPH:DOX in 2025 before screening at other international festivals like Encounters South African International Documentary Festival.[45]
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