Zach Niles

Last updated
Zach Niles
Born
Zach Niles

Nationality American
Alma mater Middlebury College
Occupation(s)Director, producer, musician
Years active1996–present

Zach Niles, is an American filmmaker and film producer. [1] He is best known as the director and producer of the critically acclaimed film Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars . Apart from acting, he is also a strategist, entertainment producer and a social justice advocate.

Contents

Personal life

He is a graduate of Middlebury College. He has lived and worked in South Africa and Cameroon for a long period of time. During these years on African soil, he generated personal and professional interest in the music and culture of Africa. [2] From 2011 until 2016, he lived in Haiti. He currently lives in Burlington, Vermont. [3]

Career

From 1998 to 2004, he was involved in music, and was part of the production and promotion of renowned rock music bands tours of The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Madonna, and Simon and Garfunkel. [4]

In 2000, he served as the associate producer for the eight-part television series, Live At The Fillmore, aired on the UPN Television Network. With the success of the television series, he turned to filmmaking. In 2005, he became the producer, director and writer for the film Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars along with Banker White. [2] The film rotates about the Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars musical band composed entirely of refugees from Freetown displaced to Guinea during the 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone. [5] The film received critical acclaim and won awards at 12 international film festivals. [6] The film had its premiere in November 2005 in Los Angeles at the American Film Institute's Film Fest, winning the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary. [7]

He is also the co-founder of a film and multi-media educational program entitled 'WeOwnTV' founded for disadvantaged youth in Freetown, Sierra Leone. [8]

Partial filmography

YearFilmRoleGenreRef.
2000Live! At the FillmoreAssociate producerTV series
2005 Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars Director, producerDocumentary
2007 P.O.V. Director, producerHome
2010PeepersAssociate producerTV series documentary
2024 Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones ProducerFilm

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sierra Leone</span> Country on the southwest coast of West Africa

Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Its land area is 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi). It has a tropical climate and environments ranging from savannas to rainforests. As of the 2023 census, Sierra Leone has a population of 8,908,040. Freetown is both its capital and its largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are further subdivided into 16 districts.

Sorious Samura is a Sierra Leonean journalist. He is best known for two CNN documentary films: Cry Freetown (2000) and Exodus from Africa (2001). The self-funded Cry Freetown depicts the most brutal period of the civil war in Sierra Leone with RUF rebels capturing the capital city. The film won, among other awards, an Emmy Award and a Peabody. Exodus from Africa shows the harrowing effort by the best of young African male blood to break through to Europe via death- and danger-ridden paths from Sierra Leone and Nigeria, via Mali, the Sahara desert, Algeria, and Morocco through the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Questlove</span> American hip hop musician (born 1971)

Ahmir K. Thompson, known professionally as Questlove, is an American drummer, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman for the hip-hop band the Roots. The Roots have been serving as the in-house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon since 2014, after having fulfilled the same role on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Questlove is also one of the producers of the 2015 cast album of the Broadway musical Hamilton. He has also co-founded of the websites Okayplayer and OkayAfrica. He joined Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University as an adjunct professor in 2016, and hosts the podcast Questlove Supreme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krio language</span> English-based creole spoken in Sierra Leone

The Sierra Leonean Creole or Krio is an English-based creole language that is the lingua franca and de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 96 percent of the country's population, and it unites the different ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and social interaction with each other. Krio is the primary language of communication among Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad, and has also heavily influenced Sierra Leonean English. The language is native to the Sierra Leone Creole people, or Krios, a community of about 104,311 descendants of freed slaves from the West Indies, Canada, United States and the British Empire, and is spoken as a second language by millions of other Sierra Leoneans belonging to the country's indigenous tribes. Krio, along with English, is the official language of Sierra Leone.

The Sierra Leonean Civil War (1991–2002) was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted almost 11 years, and had over 50,000, up to 70,000, casualties in total; an estimated 2.5 million people were displaced during the conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass media in Sierra Leone</span>

Mass media in Sierra Leone began when the first modern printing press in Africa arrived at the start of the 19th century. In the 1860s the country became a journalist hub for Africa with professional travelling to the country from across the continent. At the end of the 19th century the industry went into decline and when radio was introduced in the 1930s this became the primary communication media. Print media is not widely read in Sierra Leone, especially outside Freetown, partially due to the low levels of literacy in the country. In 2008 there were 15 daily newspapers in addition to those published weekly. Among newspaper readership young people are likely to read newspapers weekly and older people daily. The majority of newspapers are privately run and are often critical of the government.

<i>Sierra Leones Refugee All Stars</i> (film) 2005 American film

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars is a documentary film about the musical band of the same name composed entirely of refugees from Freetown displaced to Guinea during the 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars</span> Musical artist

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars is a band from Sierra Leone which was formed by a group of refugees displaced to Guinea during the Sierra Leone Civil War. Since their return to Freetown in 2004, the band has toured extensively to raise awareness for humanitarian causes. Their story is documented in the 2005 documentary film Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Velan</span> Musical artist

Chris Velan is a Montreal-based singer-songwriter and guitarist.

<i>Living Like a Refugee</i> 2006 studio album / field recordings by Sierra Leones Refugee All Stars

Living Like a Refugee is the debut album from Sierra Leonian band Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, released in the Europe on 25 September 2006 and in the United States on 26 September 2006.

Cinema of the Democratic Republic of the Congo originated with educational and propaganda films during the colonial era of the Belgian Congo. Development of a local film industry after the Democratic Republic of the Congo gained its independence from Belgium in 1960, and was handicapped by constant civil war.

Javid Abdelmoneim is a British-born physician and television presenter. He is best known for his work with Médecins Sans Frontières which has seen him respond to crises in Iraq (2009), Haiti (2010), South Sudan (2014), Sierra Leone (2014), Syria (2017–2018) and also aboard the Aquarius (2016), a search and rescue ship run in partnership between MSF and SOS Mediteranée. Most recently, Abdelmoneim served as a Member of the Board of Trustees (2015–2021) and was also elected the youngest serving president and chair of the Board (2017–2021) for MSF UK.

Ngardy Conteh George is a Sierra Leonean-Canadian film director, editor and producer.

Lansana Mansaray, often known as Barmmy Boy, is a Sierra Leonean filmmaker. One of the most popular filmmakers in Sierra Leone cinema, Mansaray is best known for the critically acclaimed films Youth, Charity and Survivors. Apart from filmmaking, he is also a film producer, cinematographer and rapper.

Raouf J. Jacob, is a filmmaker, producer and film curator. Jacob is best known for his multiple award-winning documentary feature film Sierra Leone: A Culture of Silence. He is also the Executive Director & Creator and Founder of Worldwide Cinema Frames studios/films LLC and Global Cinema Film Festival of Boston (GCFF) which he founded in 2006.

Banker White, is an American filmmaker and film producer. He is best known as the director and producer of the critically acclaimed films Survivors, The Genius of Marian and Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brigitte Kornetzky</span> German filmmaker

Brigitte Uttar Kornetzky, is a German–Swiss Indie filmmaker. She directed multiple award winning feature documentaries like God No Say So, Imagine, the Sky.,Where the Elephants Sleeps, Elephants From Zero to Hero (2023) and The Fall and Rise of Elephants`Paradise, as well as numerous short films like Cheetal Walk, Sugarcane Village, Elephant Kitchen and Behind Bars.

Imagine, the Sky, is a 2011 Swiss-Sierra Leonean documentary drama film directed and produced by Brigitte Kornetzky for MagpieDream Pictures as an independent film. The film stars Matilda Bangs in lead role along with Hawa Momoh, John Mangura, Mussu Suray, Regina Sesay and John George.

Em Cooper is a British filmmaker and animator. She is best known for her distinctive hand-painted oil-paint animation style and as the director of the oil-painted music video for The Beatles song I'm Only Sleeping released on 1st November 2022 and created with over 1300 of Cooper's oil paintings.

Yor-El Francis is a Liberian–American filmmaker and film producer. He is most notable as the director of critically acclaimed award-winning film, Murder in the Cassava Patch (2012).

References

  1. "Zach Niles: Team Lead, Nomeni". haystackneedle. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  2. 1 2 "Zach Niles: Woodstock, VT". Creative Capital. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  3. "Lakou Mizik brings Haiti's joy and pride to California". riffmagazine. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  4. "Filmmaker Bios". archive. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  5. Daniel M. Gold (26 June 2007). "African Refugees, Transported by Song". The New York Times .
  6. "Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars". Institute of Contemporary Arts. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  7. Elaine Bole (15 November 2005). "Refugee musicians' story wins 'Best Documentary' in L.A. film festival". United Nations Refugee Agency.
  8. "Zach Niles". Forum for Scholars and Publics. Retrieved 8 November 2020.