Mami Wata Cinematographer Llis Soares on Creating a New Kind of Gaze

L lis Soares attends the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Mami Wata premiere on January 23, 2023 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)

By Stephanie Ornelas

Cinematography is like painting life. For me, it's very important to have texture, to have volume, to have silhouettes. [This movie] is all about beauty. It's about the power of the Black woman.

- L lis Soares, cinematographer, Mami Wata

When director C.J. Obasi asked L lis Soares to be the Director of Photography for Mami Wata (2023 Sundance Film Festival), the first thing he told her was that the film would be in black-and-white. When she heard this, she was thrilled. But she also knew it wouldn't be easy.

For me, it was a dream. But it was a challenge, too. You're filming darker skin. And I've never done or seen something like this before, says Soares in a Zoom interview.

Mami Wata was just recently submitted by Nigeria as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film for the 96th Academy Awards. The elegant film follows an African village whose relationship with Mami Wata, the powerful water deity, has been disrupted. Throughout the drama, sisters Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) and Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) work to restore harmony to their oceanside village after troubling events throw their community into chaos.

As the cinematographer, one thing that was top of mind for Soares was to give people of color visibility in a way that's not typically shown in Hollywood or the film industry.

I put Black people and people of color as my priority. Black bodies are beautiful. Sadly, we don't often see ourselves [represented] like this [in film]. And I believe so much in this religion. It's my religion. In Brazil, Mami Wata is an important representation for our culture.

LINK:	https://www.sundance.org/blogs/mami-wata-cinematographer-lilis-soares-...
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