Darol Olu Kae is an American director whose exquisite standard of filmmaking stands out due to his dynamic treatment of image and sound. Mining community archives and social history, Darol’s work blurs the bounds of fiction and documentary to queer narrative conventions, while exploring complexities of family, cultural inheritance and Black life.

A spell-binding homage to LA’s jazz musicians, Darol’s short ‘Keeping Time’ follows the kaleidoscopic journey of Mekala Session as he strives to honour legendary fellow artists, The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (The Ark). The 30-minute film premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival and screened at the Blackstar Festival before being exhibited at the California African American Museum (CAAM) and released on the Criterion Channel.

‘Say Peace’ by Common, an electrifying music video (co-directed with AG Rojas) spotlights Darol’s talent for mixing varied visual material to craft powerful stories, and his Instagram spot ‘Same Bruh’ showcases the same skill set in contrastingly playful fashion. Whereas ‘Ellipsis’ his promo for serpentwithfeet’s latest LP is all soulful Californian reverie.

His break-out short ‘I Ran From It and Was Still In It' – a stirring video essay about his father’s death, which collapses time and memory – was selected for Sundance, Lorcano, BlackStar and SXSW, where it was awarded Special Jury Recognition for Poetry.

Darol is currently in post-production on his latest short film ‘BLUR’.

Archive