Ayoka Chenzira

Quick Facts

Full Name	Ayoka Chenzira
Occupation	Film Director
Date Of Birth	Nov 8, 1953(1953-11-08)
Age	71
Birthplace	Philadelphia
Country	United States
Birth City	Pennsylvania
Horoscope	Scorpio

Ayoka Chenzira Biography

Ayoka Chenzira is one of the most popular and richest Film Director who was born on November 8, 1953 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Ayoka (“Ayo”) Chenzira (born 1953) is an independent producer of African descent animator, director and experimental film as well as transmedia storyteller. Hers is the very pioneering African American woman animator and one of a few black experimental filmmakers in the end of the 1970s. Her work has received international recognition for her documentary, experimental, animation and cross-genre films. Her work, along with her work as her most pioneering African American woman film educator have led some people media outlets to characterize herself as an advocate for media who is fighting for social justice, and challenging the stereotypes about African American stereotypes in the mainstream media.

Chenzira was a member of an elite group of filmmakers of color who were working in a different way than traditional production and financing structures for their films. In the years 1981-84, Chenzira served as director of programs for the Black Filmmakers Foundation, where she was instrumental in promoting and distributing black-themed films. Chenzira was among the first women of African descent to create a feature-length documentary, Alma’s Rainbow (1993). In 1984 she was one of seven writers/directors chosen for Sundance Institute. Sundance Institute.

Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyheaded People is a 1984 satirical short film incorporating mixed media and animation to describe the emotional connection of black women and their hair. Chenzira said the film was inspired by the question, “Why is kinky hair seen as broken?” Chenzira, noted for her feminist topics, points out “self image for African-American women living in a society where beautiful hair is viewed as hair that blows in the wind”. The pioneering short animated film tackles matters of space and personal rights for Black women and their bodies. The award-winning ten-minute, 16-mm color animation contrasts the hair experiences and culture of Black women against white beauty standards. Chenzira depicts the salon locale as an engaging space, calling for an initiation in scholarly and film discourse about Black hair culture and Black female agency. Using humor, music, and mixed media of magazine photographs, Chenzira examines African American beauty trends as well as issues for Black women from the early 1900s to the early 1980s.

Chenzira is most well known for her 35mm feature films Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyheaded People (1984) and Alma’s Rainbow (1993). Many of her recent works as a transmedia storyteller play with the increasingly digital world through art that combines material objects with digital environments, including Chenzira and her daughter HaJ’s collaboration HERadventure (2013).

In the late 1980s, Chenzira formed Red Carnelian which was a New York-based production and distribution firm that focuses on the production of media that depicts the life and the culture from African Americans. The company operates a highly successful distribution division called Black Indie Classics, and it also offers training in the making of films and videos and opportunities for communities where people typically don’t have access to media production.

Ayoka Chenzira Net Worth

Ayoka Chenzira is one of the richest Film Director from United States. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, Ayoka Chenzira 's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

The two of her movies her 1979 film Sylvilla: They Dance to her Dream and 1989’s Zajota and the Boogie Spirit, are explorations of the significance of dance in the black past. Sylvilla film is documentary about what happened to Sylvilla Fort who was taught with dance instructor Katherine Dunham and went on herself to train dancing legend Alvin Ailey. Zajota is a film that’s animated about the journey of Africans that were transported across America as well as the Caribbean. Chenzira explained that the film was born from a feeling that the black Americans were uncomfortable with the thought of being able to dance well.

Chenzira attended a private boarding institution in high school. After graduation, she pursued a degree in photography and film in The College of New Rochelle in Westchester, New York. She earned her M.A. educational degree at Columbia University. She earned her B.F.A. qualification in the field of filmmaking at New York University, where her thesis work was Syvilla She and Her Dancers Dance To Her Drum (1979), “a short film that documented the African American concert dancer, Syvilla Fort, who was her dance teacher”. The first African American to have earned her PhD in Digital Media Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Also in 1982, Secret Sounds Screaming: The Sexual Abuse of Children was a documentary sharing the experience of childhood sexual abuse from a distinctly black perspective. It was her first self-produced film.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

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Who is Ayoka Chenzira Dating?

According to our records, Ayoka Chenzira is possibily single & has not been previously engaged. As of December 1, 2023, Ayoka Chenzira’s is not dating anyone.

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In 2001, Chenzira was invited to serve as the first William and Camille Cosby Endowed Professor in the Arts at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. There, she created and directed the award-winning Digital Moving Image Salon (DMIS), a year-long research and documentary production course. She also created and served as co-director of Oral Narratives and Digital Technology, a joint venture between Spelman College and the Durham Institute of Technology (DIT) where she designed and taught workshops primarily for Zulu students at DIT. in 2015 Dr Chinezira’s animated film Hair piece:a film for Nappyheaded people was exhibited by the whitney museum of American art. She was also invited to show her early films at Lincoln center as part of a celebration of black film makers titled ” Tell it like it is : Black independents in New York, 1968–1986.

Facts & Trivia

Ayoka Ranked on the list of most popular Film Director. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in United States. Ayoka Chenzira celebrates birthday on November 8 of every year.