Safiya Songhai is an award winning filmmaker, Emmy Award Winning producer and television host. Before graduating suma cum laude from Howard University, Songhai founded her production company MpireFilms™ and continued on to New York University where she is pursuing her MFA in film production. A writer, journalist, and activist, Songhai has used narrative and documentary film to champion the empowerment of women and amend the derogatory depiction of the African Diaspora. Songhai’s films often employ the themes of reincarnation, spirituality, in stories that confront the issues that fracture family bonds.
Born in North Philadelphia, and raised in Roxbury, MA, Songhai grew up during the height of the gang warfare that claimed the lives of black youth across the country. After losing several friends, church members and ultimately her own father to murder, Songhai decided to dedicate her film career to repairing the corrosive effect that racism, poverty and mis-education have had on Americans.
While at Howard, Songhai worked at the local PBS affiliate as a producer and host of several television shows winning a Student Emmy for her production of the ‘Spring Black Arts Festival’, a Paul Robeson Award for her sort film entitled “Everything” and the Excellence in Communications Award from Howard. Safiya began working at the CBS affiliate, WJZ-TV in Baltimore, MD as a producer and announcer for the Maryland Lottery and produced and edited an internet program called gURL Tech for Nortel Networks KidZonline. Safiya has also written for the Washington Post.
After moving to New York, Songhai has worked on such films as When the Levees Broke and produced for Dateline NBC. Songhai has also appeared on Ambush Makeover and The Rachel Ray Show
Songhai is working in pre-production on her first feature film, The Bigger Man a story about a young man who must convince his family to trust his lead after they begin to suspect and learn of his dark past. Stay tuned !
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SAFIYA SONGHAI