The teenage daughter of a Brooklyn beauty-parlor owner blossoms under the influence of her recently-returned show-biz aunt.

 Ayoka Chenzira 

Obtaining a formal education from NYU, Georgia Tech and more, Ayoka Chenzira has said her real degree came from her mother’s beauty parlor. Growing up listening to stories of women of color deeply influenced Chenzira’s work in film at a time where few had been made about the inner lives of black women.

Her feature debut with ‘ALMA’S RAINBOW’ was self-funded and largely shaped by Chenzira’s personal experience with womanhood and navigating standards of beauty, self-image, and the rights women have over their bodies. The elaborate set design and costumes of the film are credited to being exposed to film and cultural diversity at a young age. This contributed to the film’s sense of putting its women characters on a pedestal, at a time the rest of the industry was mostly ignoring them.

With a love for use of different forms in all of her works, she considers this process a conversation with herself, to herself, about herself. Chenzira is recognized as one of the first African-American woman animators and Black experimental filmmakers. You may be familiar with her shorts ‘Syvilla: They Dance to Her Drum’ or ‘Zajota & the Boogie Spirit’.