Ekwa Msangi is a Tanzanian and American filmmaker whose award-winning and critically acclaimed feature film Farewell Amor premiered in competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, garnering 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, and is being distributed by IFC Films (North America), MUBI and Netflix Africa (worldwide). Ekwa has written and directed for both television and film, and along her journey has been awarded the New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) Director’s Award, the 2020 Durban International Film Festival award for Best Screenplay, and was named a 2021 Sundance Momentum Fellow as well as a 2020 BAFTA Breakthrough. Most recently, Ekwa won the 2021 Indie Spirit “Someone to Watch” Award.

Untitled Zanzibar Carmen Project — Set in Zanzibar Island and taken from the famous Georges Bizet opera, Carmen sings traditional taarab music for tourists to make a living. The local football champion, Bakari, visits the island on vacation and tries to woo her, but her heart is taken by the earnest local policeman Oumar, who loves her but can’t accept her lifestyle. Her heart is set on one, but her future looks brightest with the other, and she has to find her own voice amidst the pressure.