Editor’s Note: “The Reel Black List” is our annual spotlight of brothers and sisters in the worlds of advertising, film, TV, music, radio and media who are making a difference through their contributions and creativity daily. For the next 29 days, you will be able to celebrate wonderful human beings, like talented Where the Buffalo Roam director and artist, Jamal Ademola!
Jamal is a visionary Nigerian-American artist and film director celebrated for his daring and inventive approach across various artistic mediums. His expansive body of work spans film, video, animation, painting, installation, acting, and performance, delving into themes of Blackness, identity, memory, language, dreams, ritual, love, and myth.
Ademola’s captivating creations have captivated international audiences, with notable works such as “I Dreamed of Seeing Myself,” “Who Should I Be in the World?,” and “I Forever Am” showcased at prestigious galleries, institutions, and festivals worldwide. His recent exhibitions and screenings include the Images Festival (2024), Black Cultural Archives in London (2023), Alchemy Film & Arts Moving Image Festival (2023)(2022), Kala Art Gallery (2022), The New School (2022), and Untitled (AWCA) White Space Creative Agency in Lagos, Nigeria (2021).
In addition to his directorial prowess, Ademola has showcased his talent as an actor in acclaimed TV series like “Your Attention Pleas” on Hulu and “Ten Cent Daisy,” available on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi. Currently, he is in production for his hybrid docu-fiction film, “Ellas Vinieron de Las Nubes.”
Ademola’s artistic endeavors have been generously supported by prestigious grants and programs, including the 2021–22 Kala Media Art Award, the 2022 PAM-CUT Sustainability Labs Fellowship, and the 2023 Black Experience on Xfinity Grant Program from Comcast (NBCUniversal), Firelight Media. He is also recognized as a 2023 CDDP Semi-Finalist.
Furthermore, Ademola has been granted coveted artist residencies at esteemed institutions such as Wassaic Project, Santa Fe Art Institute, Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, Pocoapoco, Kala Art Institute, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Caldera Arts. He is represented by Where the Buffalo Roam for commercials, film & television.
Through his fearless exploration of diverse mediums and themes, Jamal Ademola continues to push boundaries and inspire audiences around the globe with his artistic vision and creativity.
Let’s meet Jamal!
What’s your origin story?
My mother says I’ve been an artist since I was three. I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and Atlanta, Georgia, and attended art school for media arts and animation. Many years ago, I got my first production job working on Adult Swim television shows. I learned a lot and had a great time, but I never felt like the voices of people I knew were reflected in those shows.
At that time, I consciously decided to move into advertising because I believed that’s where an artist could make a practical living. Years passed, and I discovered that just working on ads alone was not feeding my creative spirit. I possessed a burning desire for true creative freedom – to make my own independent art and films.
I have always loved and watched many foreign and independent films like Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder; Claire’s Knee, directed by Eric Rohmer; and Love Jones, directed by Theodore Witcher.
I love directing, visual art, installation, poetry, and performance. I started exhibiting my work regularly at festivals, galleries, museums, and institutions around the world. I acted in a few films, which taught me how to be a better film director. I do a lot of different creative things. My end goal is really to just become a circle and to help other people.
How did you get into directing?
At first, I was so into visual art and animation that I never saw myself as a filmmaker. That changed when I got animation fatigue and started seeing more films and commercials that heavily incorporated visual art, set design, mixed media, and animation into their production process.
By then, I was working in advertising in many aspects of creative production and was always interested in the entire storytelling process and being the author or storyteller, so I started writing treatments and making my own short films.
What did your parents think you would be?
Lol. Honestly, an unhoused person when I told them I was pursuing art. There really wasn’t a fundamental understanding that someone could make a living being an artist.
Who were your mentors?
I’ve had many mentors and a few NYU Tisch filmmaker friends and colleagues at that time, whom I supported and admired. Some hybrid visual directors who inspired me were Alex Turvey, Danny Sangra, and Patrick Daughters.
He doesn’t know it, but Chadian filmmaker Mahamat Saleh Haroun has been a mentor and inspiration. I’m very happy to have a current mentor in documentary filmmaker Maya Cueva, who has come on as a consultant through a mentorship opportunity at BAVC Media during this process of making my first independent feature.
REELated: Read about others on The Reel Black List
Bravest thing you’ve done?
Becoming a father, choosing to become an artist and filmmaker, making art, performing on stage, acting in short and feature films, and becoming Teddy Pendergrass in karaoke.
How do you handle failure?
I think the most creative people persistently court failure. It is an integral part of the creative act. To be creative is to indulge in vision-making, manifesting something that has not been seen before. So, I try to cultivate a safe space to allow risk-taking, experimentation, and failure in my creative process. There’s more room for experimentation and failure with your own projects than with a commercial with a huge budget or a studio-financed film.
What’s a product or service that you are dying to do a campaign for?
Any product or service that is innovative, design-oriented, and authentically aligned with my values. Any brand that wants to raise awareness about coltan mining in the Congo.
I’d love to do a campaign with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I’m currently working with a public broadcaster and a Black-owned fashion label, and that’s incredibly fun. The Nigerian fashion label “Busayo” would be fun to create with.
Who is a talent, actor, director, or writer you are dying to work with?
Mostly other talented creative people I know, like Ellie Foumbi, Rhym Guisse, Adesua Okosun, Adeyemi Michael, Idil Ibrahim, Jeremiah Ojo, and Janice Bond. There are too many to name.
But if I had to list celebs, I’d say, Jeffrey Wright, Mahershala Ali, Dominique Fishback, and YOU. Seriously, if you are reading this and see alignment in anything I’ve said, hit me up. I’d love to meet you.
Lunch, Happy Hour, or Dinner
Lunch with writer Toni Morrison, Happy Hour with actor and filmmaker Bill Duke, and Dinner with Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti.
You would give up your career to go on tour and perform with what singer/band?
Tricky Adrian Thaws, Thom Yorke, and Honny and the Bees Band, which created this incredible 1973 Ghanaian song called “Psychedelic Woman”
Colman Domingo is a national treasure. Yes or No.
Yes. So happy for his success. I’m rooting for everybody Black.
Nosebleed seats for Beyoncé or front-row tickets for Taylor Swift?
Beyoncé, please, with Solange in attendance.
What are your guilty pleasures?
I secretly love those terrible vampire and werewolf Underworld movies. I’ve always loved anything related to werewolves. I am also secretly a vampire on Tuesdays and a werewolf on Fridays.
What’s brewing for your 2024?
I’m in production on my first feature film, which has been supported by Comcast (NBCUniversal), Kala Art Institute, and the Center for an Untold Tomorrow. I’m directing a short fashion documentary for an Emmy Award-winning TV series, and I’m preparing for an exhibition curated by Janice Bond at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh.
I’m also ideating and developing organizational structures to create more opportunities for media artists and filmmakers to survive and thrive in capitalism.
Overall, I’m just excited for my 2024 offerings to be more balanced, grounded, and community-centered while creating beautiful, avant-garde, thought-provoking art and films in lush environments bursting with ambrosial pulchritude.
Nominate Someone You Know For The 6th Annual REEL WOMEN
