O.Funmilayo Makarah

O.Funmilayo Makarah is a writer and director of films and videos that explore cultural identity, as well as an educator. She came to Los Angeles in 1974 and entered the UCLA film school. After spending a decade in Europe, she returned to the MFA program in the late-1980s. She later founded In Visible Colors, a loose network of film and video makers.

In 1988, Makarah wrote and directed the short video DEFINE, a piece which examines ethnic female identity. She later made The Joke Series (1994), which was shown at the School of Art Institute in Chicago, and Creating a Different Image: Portrait of Alile Sharon Larkin (1989), a short that affirms Larkin’s identity as an artist. She also made a video installation on the Rodney King incident for the California African American Museum in Los Angeles.

Makarah has contributed scholarly works on race, representation and media to various publications, such as Black Women Film & Video (Routledge, 1998) and Afterimage. She has also served as director and founder of the Heritage Film Festival at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland, as well as Chair of the Media Committee for the Cultural Affairs Dept. of the City of Los Angeles. Makarah is also a founding member of L.A. Freewaves, a worldwide media arts organization.

Selected Filmography

	Film	Role(s)	Year
		Director
	DEFINE O.Funmilayo Makarah's oblique meditation on the semiotics of ethnic female identity accompanies a cynical narration about how to “win an invitation to the dominant culture.”	Director Producer Writer Editor Cast	1988
	Creating a Different Image: Portrait of Alile Sharon Larkin O.Funmilayo Makarah's Creating A Different Image is a jubilant affirmation of self-identity for artist and filmmaker Alile Sharon Larkin.	Director Producer Editor	1989
		Director	1989
	L.A. in My Mind O.Funmilayo Makarah's captivating montage of notable Los Angeles sites, laced with free-floating names of places and people, becomes a delightful, personal canon of spiritually sustaining quantities.	Director Producer Writer Cinematographer Editor	2006
	Fired-Up or How I Turned My Rage Into Art O.Funmilayo Makarah cross the country interviewing people about their reactions to the "not guilty" verdict in the 1992 Rodney King beating case and the resulting unrest in Los Angeles.	Director	2006