Idrissou Mora-Kpai

Idrissou Mora-Kpai is an award-winning filmmaker who produces artistically compelling and socially relevant films that tell the stories of people often underrepresented in mainstream productions. His filmography includes the documentary features, “Si-Gueriki, The Queen Mother”, “Arlit, The Second Paris”, “Indochina Traces of a Mother” and “America Street.” Mora-Kpai’s films have been screened at prestigious festivals, in Berlin, Rotterdam, Vienna, Busan, Marseille, and Sheffield, among others.

His work has garnered numerous international accolades, including the TV5 Best Documentary Award (Namur International Festival, Belgium); the Best Documentary Award (African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival, Italy); and the Amiens City Award (Amiens International Film Festival, France). He is also the recipient of the Prince Claus Award. Currently, Mora-Kpai is an Assistant Professor at Ithaca College’s Park School, where he teaches Film Production.

He has also held visiting positions at Cornell University, Duke University, and the University of Pittsburgh. Mora-Kpai will use his Guggenheim Fellowship to pursue work on “Border Life,” a feature-length creative documentary on Seme, a bustling border town between Nigeria and Benin where the lives of peddlers, smugglers, travelers, and ordinary citizens are deeply intertwined in ways that open a window into the localization of global economic exchanges.