Soraya Sélène

Soraya Sélène (b. France, raised on NYC’s lower east side) is a director and cinematographer in documentary and narrative film. Soraya is passionate about social justice and feminist and humanist stories that shed light on intergenerational trauma; stories that also inspire transcendence and change, visualized through lyrical cinematography and a womanist lens. Her work has screened at festivals around the world. Soraya is co-director and director of photography of “Who in the Hell is Regina Jones?”, the award-winning feature documentary about ground-breaking publisher of Soul Newspaper, which is currently making the festival rounds. Her documentary “Half The Picture,” (as co-cinematographer) about women directors and gender issues in the film industry, premiered at Sundance in 2018.

Soraya received her MFA in Directing & Cinematography from UCLA and her BA from Wesleyan University. She is a Brown Girls Doc Mafia member, a member of Film Fatales, and a founding member of the International Collective of Female Cinematographers (ICF C). Soraya is also faculty at California Institute of the Arts, while continuing to work on independent projects. A longtime resident of Los Angeles, Soraya recently moved to Lisbon, Portugal with her twin children, who inspire all her work.