O.Funmilayo Makarah

History

O.Funmilayo Makarah is a writer and director of films and videos that explore cultural identity, as well as an educator. She came to Los Angeles in 1974 and entered the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. After spending a decade in Europe, she returned to the MFA program in the late-1980s. She later founded In VISIBLE COLORS, a network of film and video makers. In 1988, Makarah wrote and directed the short video DEFINE, a piece which examines ethnic female identity. She later made The Joke Series (1994), which was shown at the School of Art Institute in Chicago, and Creating a Different Image: Portrait of Alile Sharon Larkin (1989), a short that affirms Larkin’s identity as an artist. She also made a video installation on the Rodney King incident for the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. Makarah has contributed scholarly works on race, representation and media to various publications, such as Black Women Film & Video Artists (Routledge, 1998) and Afterimage. She has also served as director and founder of the Heritage Film Festival in Prince George’s County, Maryland, as well as Chair of the Media Committee for the Cultural Affairs Dept. of the City of Los Angeles. Makarah is also a founding member of L.A. Freewaves, a worldwide media arts organization.

Movies

L.A. in My Mind
L.A. in My Mind
Cinematography
A captivating montage of notable Los Angeles sites, laced with free-floating names of places and people and accompanied by street noises, becomes a delightful and personal canon of spiritually sustaining quantities. —Shannon Kelley
L.A. in My Mind
L.A. in My Mind
Producer
A captivating montage of notable Los Angeles sites, laced with free-floating names of places and people and accompanied by street noises, becomes a delightful and personal canon of spiritually sustaining quantities. —Shannon Kelley
L.A. in My Mind
L.A. in My Mind
Editor
A captivating montage of notable Los Angeles sites, laced with free-floating names of places and people and accompanied by street noises, becomes a delightful and personal canon of spiritually sustaining quantities. —Shannon Kelley
L.A. in My Mind
L.A. in My Mind
Writer
A captivating montage of notable Los Angeles sites, laced with free-floating names of places and people and accompanied by street noises, becomes a delightful and personal canon of spiritually sustaining quantities. —Shannon Kelley
L.A. in My Mind
L.A. in My Mind
Director
A captivating montage of notable Los Angeles sites, laced with free-floating names of places and people and accompanied by street noises, becomes a delightful and personal canon of spiritually sustaining quantities. —Shannon Kelley
Fired-Up or How I Turned My Rage Into Art
Fired-Up or How I Turned My Rage Into Art
Director
O.Funmilayo Makarah crosses the country interviewing people about their reactions to the "not guilty" verdict in the 1992 Rodney King beating case and the resulting unrest in Los Angeles.
Creating a Different Image: Portrait of Alile Sharon Larkin
Creating a Different Image: Portrait of Alile Sharon Larkin
Director
A jubilant affirmation of self-identity, Creating a Different Image is Alile Sharon Larkin in her own words defiantly declaring, "I am an artist." Learn more about the personal life and professional aspirations of the filmmaker behind Your Children Come Back to You (1979), A Different Image (1982), Dreadlocks and the Three Bears (1991) and many more. —Samuel B. Prime
Define
Define
Director
Oblique, episodic meditations on the semiotics and ethics of ethnic female identity are accompanied by a blandly cynical narrator explaining how to “win an invitation to the dominant culture.” —Kevin McMahon
. . . Just Names . . . Just Names
. . . Just Names . . . Just Names
Director
. . . Just Names . . . Just Names
Ritual for Third World Women Artists
Ritual for Third World Women Artists
Director
Ritual for Third World Women Artists
Survival: The Black African Theatre Project '77
Survival: The Black African Theatre Project '77
Director
film it is yes it is