Yeelen Cohen

Yeelen is a non-binary Filmmaker, Actor, Writer, Producer and Theatre Artist based in Brooklyn. Born in Paris, France, and raised in Jacmel(Haiti), New York, Miami and the Bay Area, their multicultural upbringing deeply influences their artistic practice and view of the world. Yeelen’s work, often rooted in the personal, unfolds into larger conversations about identity, history, space, diaspora and technology. They co-founded and curated the Afrofuturism Film Festival in 2016, Assistant Directed the Haitian magical-neorealist feature Ayiti Mon Amour, and recently starred in Random Acts of Flyness on HBO. They won the mention prize award for Best Pitch at the Blackstar Film festival. They were a fellow at the 2020-2021 Black Public Media 360 incubator and as of recently a 2021 Flaherty Fellow. Their project was also selected at the 2021 Gotham Week (IFP).

Fighting For The Light

Named after the African cinema classic, Yeelen journeys to Bamako to make a movie about the enigmatic elder who inspired their name. Souleymane Cisse, director of YEELEN, readily assumes the role of godfather to the multimedia artist, but soon begins questioning the millennial’s vision. What starts as a playful personal documentary about the origin of a name, spirals into an existential interrogation of representation, collective imagination, and the power manifested through image creation.