October 2017

About Chelsea Odufu:

Often considered a renaissance woman, Chelsea Odufu is a filmmaker and art activist whose mission is to use art as a tool to regenerate positive and empowering images of Blackness on screen. A Newark, New Jersey native with Guyanese and Nigerian roots, Chelsea’s work focuses on narratives that explore the complex Black identity while portraying issues such as colorism, the stigmas of Black spirituality, gender and sexuality.  Chelsea previously worked at MTV, Nickelodeon, Universal Music Group and with many popular artists such as Meek Mill, Chance the Rapper, Vashtie, but found her true love is narrative filmmaking.

Upon graduating from New York University’s esteemed Tisch School of The Arts as a Martin Luther King scholar, due to her proven academic excellence, leadership abilities, and passion for social justice, Chelsea hit the ground running with the creation of her film Ori Inu: In Search of Self with her brother Emann. This film has screened in over 7 countries including Paris, Berlin, Guyana, St.Lucia, London, US, Canada Finland to name a few, and over 15 film festivals. Articles about the film have been featured on NBC News, Huffington Post, Afropunk, Saint Heron, OkayAfrica and many more. The creation of Ori Inu film merged with her passion for social justice and community development launched her speaking career in 2015. Since then, Chelsea has spoken at universities such as Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard, Columbia, Vassar, NYU, Wesleyan giving speeches, leading artistic interactive discussions and workshops centered around identity, Black representation in film and TV, Afrofuturism and her latest film Ori Inu: In Search of Self.

Shortly after graduation Chelsea was offered a job by honorary Oscar award winning filmmaker Spike Lee to work on a number of his projects including Chi-Raq and recently on his new Netflix series She’s Gotta Have it. She also recently directed and produced content for Cadillac General Motors Diversity. Chelsea’s work as an art activist encourages people to be proud of their cultural roots and to stand firm in their truth.

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Week 1

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Week 2