Darol Olu Kae is a Los Angeles–based artist and filmmaker whose work moves between narrative, documentary, and experimental cinema to explore Black American life and culture. Grounded in collaboration and research, his practice draws from local community histories and the legacy of Black art forms such as jazz, blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction to expand cinematic language. His films have screened internationally at Sundance, SXSW, Locarno Film Festival, MoMA, and IFFR, with i ran from it and was still in it winning the Pardino d’Oro for Best International Short Film. Kae is a Filmmaker Magazine “25 New Faces of Independent Film” honoree, a 2024–25 Creative Capital Awardee, and a 2025 Black Film Project Fellow at Harvard University. He is currently writing his feature debut Without a Song and in production for his documentary feature Message to the Messenger.
