credits

Sadiq Abu

(Character of Saidu)

Sadiq Abu was born and raised in the Kono District of Sierra Leone, West Africa. At an early age, because of the uncertainty in Sierra Leone, he pursued a life long journey to every sub Saharan African country by road. He spent some time in East Africa before finally settling down in South Africa, where he continued to pursue his work as an actor. He studied at the Market theatre for 2 years. This journey was a spiritual one that made him who he is today, “I feel blessed to be still standing.” Story telling has always been close to his heart and theatre/films is his way of sharing his stories. Through the days of traveling, theatre/films has been a means of survival for him. He has met, known and experienced many great people in his life that he is truly blessed by. He presently resides in California where he works as a full time actor and enjoys all of the great successes as an actor.

Kristian Steel

(Character of Reza)

Kristian Steel started his work on the stages of Florida, through grade school, high school, and into college. A graduate of the University of Florida, Kristian moved to L.A. shortly after graduation in 2002. He booked his first L.A. gig in the L.A. Premiere of Aaron Sorkin's “A Few Good Men”. Good merit and timing awarded him with the opportunity to play Pfc. Downey for two weeks of the eight week run. He booked his first film credit on a short titled Senseless, directed by Arden Haywood. From this booking, his performance caught the attention of the star of “Soul Diaspora”, and the director was urged to bring Kristian in for a reading.

Parallel to “Soul Diaspora”, Kristian has dabbled on the production side with his colleague Danny Legare and Black Hole Films. Further Kristian has booked a number of non-union pilot presentations and is currently the producer of the hit Hollywood play “Backstage Grease”. Look for his character Brian in Highway 191, official selection of Sedona, Newport, and Philadelphia Film Festivals. ”I enjoyed this film with Odera and Abu, they gave me the chance to play a character different from myself. Reza was no easy piece, and to believe in me and give me the chance gave a lot of confidence in the beginning of my career. Thank you “Soul Diaspora”.

Mimi Vasser

(Character of Latisha)

Brendan Jackson

(Character of Dirty Mouth)

A New Jersey native, Brendan has made his way out west to take his craft to the screen. Along the way, he attended Indiana University, studying under Murray McGibbon in the prestigious Theatre program. A stage veteran, with credits including Cocky in The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, and Jonathan Harker in Dracula, Brendan is excited to bring his intensity to the big screen as Dirty Mouth, in the feature film “Soul Diaspora”, certainly at the top of a short list of favorite roles. His education in the Meisner technique continues constantly under esteemed coach Maria Gobetti, knowing that “a day in which one learns nothing, is a day wasted”.

Maggie Maki

(Character of Lori)

Maggie Maki splits her time between songwriting and acting. She is a native Angeleno and currently lives in Los Angeles.

Serge Eustache

(Character of Tyrone)

Serge lives in Los Angeles where he works as an actor. He has been acting professionally for more than eight years. His most recent TV appearance was on the Showtime series Californication. Serge has appeared in the popular TV shows Mad TV and Girlfriends. He also specializes in post production as a freelance visual effects artist.

Donald Ajluni

(Character of Ziman)

Donald lives in California’s Central Valley. Acting is his second career; He now has been acting professionally for four years. His first career was in health care as an occupational therapist. During that first career, he had already started studying acting and did stage work at local theaters, where he did both comedic and dramatic roles. For the last four years, he has been studying acting more specifically with Alan Autry (“In the Heat of the Night”).

When He got the opportunity to work on the film SOUL DIASPORA, he was immediately very attracted to both the ideas of working with the young director, Odera Ozoka, and also the challenge of working on the role of Ziman, because of his understanding of Middle Eastern cultures.

Odera Ozoka

Writer / Producer / Director

Clotilde Delavennat

Producer

Clotilde Delavennat was born and raised near Paris, France. She soon became the first artist in the family when her parents offered her the opportunity to learn piano, ballet, jazz, gymnastic rythmic, singing, and acting classes...

Becoming a professional actress became obvious to her at a very young age. After graduating from high school, Clotilde moved to Paris to act. She got accepted in the famous European acting school “cours Florent” where she stayed for four years. During that time, at the age of 16, she began learning English and became totally bilingual in less than two years which allowed her to act and work in the language for many companies in Paris for about four years.

In 2007 she moved to Los Angeles, her longtime dream to pursue her career in Hollywood, and attended the New York Film Academy acting for film program. She met many people and got the chance to work as a casting director, producer and actress. Her most recent projects as a producer, were the Nollywood feature film IJE, and SOUL DIASPORA, feature film directed by Odera Ozoka,. Although assailed by many different offers in the industry, nothing could make her forget her first and main love, acting...

Edwin Kim

Director of Photography

Edwin graduated from Brooks Institute of Photography in September of 2006. The school helped guide him towards cinematography. Brooks Institute and in particular Ralph Clevenger further developed his passion for Underwater Cinematography. Mr. Clevenger taught him how to conceptualize and capture images underwater. After graduation he continued to learn more about underwater production with his contacts at Hydroflex, The SOC, and Hollywood Divers.

Edwin would like to thank Mr. Larry ‘Mole’ Parker for his generosity and his enthusiasm towards cinematography. Mr. Parker showed him the importance and intricacies of lighting, set etiquette, and a desire to give back. Thanks to Larry Parker he learned from the top Cinematographers in our industry. Some of which are: Wally Pfister ASC, Rodrigo Prieto ASC, James Chressanthis ASC, Dean Semler ASC, Michael Negrin ASC, Steve Burum ASC, and Richard Kline ASC just to name a few.

His philosophy towards cinematography centers around story telling. Using his knowledge of lighting, camera angles and movement to complement the words of the script and the vision of the director. He believes in the collaborative effort of all the people involved on set. There is nothing more satisfying than to walk on set and work with the different departments to bring the script to life.

Richard Schachter

Editor

Richard Schachter has a background in theater and the visual arts. Originally from Los Angeles, he moved to New York City and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He received an honorable mention at the San Francisco Film and Video Festival in 1988 for “Death Camp,” the first video he produced and edited, about homosexuality, Christianity and AIDS. He didn’t edit again for nearly twenty years. Recently he was an additional editor for Jon Reiss’ “Bomb It” about global graffiti, which was featured in the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. “Soul Diaspora” is the first narrative feature edited by Mr. Schachter.

Jonathan Abrams

Associate Producer / Camera Operator

Jonathan Abrams is a native of Boston, MA. He almost started a career in meteorology as a TV weather man, but quickly realized he liked the idea of being behind the camera better. He perfected his camera skills and worked on many projects. He is an “18 plus year veteran in the business” and a member of the Society of Camera Operator (S.O.C.). His most recent works include “Avatar” and “Tripping Tommy”. He occasionally works as a director of photography, and sometimes also takes part in the producing team, like in the first feature film of director Odera Ozoka: “Soul Diaspora”, where he worked as an Associate Producer on top of his position of Camera Operator.

Jim Peterson

First Assistant Director

Born and raised in Chicago, Jim Peterson brings to the table a lifetime of production experience. Father a musician, mother an actress; Jim was a highly creative force; either acting/directing on stage or producing Super 8 movies from ages 5 to 18. Once graduated, Jim wanted to grow and joined the U.S. Army, serving in many combat environments such as Korea , Panama (Noriega) and finally Iraq/Kuwait during Operations Desert Storm, Shield and Restore Hope.

After 8 years of service, Jim opted for his Honorable Discharge, longing to return to entertainment and production. Moving to Los Angeles in the early 90’s, Jim immersed himself in film and television, where he worked for many years as a line producer/UPM, production coordinator, 1st AD, staff writer and executive for such entities as Concord/New Horizon (Roger Corman), Propaganda Films, PM Entertainment, Orion, Regency Pictures, MTV, ESPN, Max Net and several others.

Today, through his freelance production and writing work over the past 9 years, Jim has become a strong part of the rising independent film and web-based content creation community; bringing solid, studio level production guidance and a strong work ethic to the passionate and capable, yet young and inexperienced workforce that is building fast within this industry.