OYA Media Group: Documenting Black Lives
By Susan G. Cole | Wednesday, 29 January 2024
It’s one thing to recognize that the minority you’re part of doesn’t have equal access to artistic opportunities. It’s another—and much better—thing to do something about it. Alison Duke and Ngardy Conteh George did just that when they teamed up to found OYA Media Group, a company committed to amplifying Black voices in film and developing new Black talent. OYA’s (pronounced “oh yeah!”) signature initiative is its Emerging Filmmakers program, which since 2018 has helped scores of young creators to learn the craft and pursue their vision, building a network of artists that is expanding the presence of Black people in the industry. “Oya is the name of an African goddess who controls the elements and brings about change,” explains Conteh George inside the OYA offices. “Sweeping changes can transform the landscape, and we thought that was what we were embodying and doing in this industry, whether people wanted it or not.”
It was the data that called out to Duke when it came time for OYA to widen its focus beyond film production. “The data said Black and Indigenous youth have the highest unemployment and dropout rates,” she says. “Black youth, even when they graduate from a discipline, quit after five years because they can’t find employment. Five years after they graduate, they would no longer be following their dreams. When I read a report that the Ontario film industry was reaching the $2 billion-dollar mark, I thought, ‘Whoa—clearly there’s room in the industry for youth graduating from film and video programs.’”
When they got wind that the Ontario Black Youth Action Plan was calling upon for-profit companies to help correct the historical inequities faced by Black youth, Conteh George and Duke decided to do something. The results have been spectacular. In the five years of the Emerging Filmmakers program’s existence, OYA has mentored over 70 young Black filmmakers. By the end of year one, 91% of the cohort had found work. In year two, 79% found internships. By the end of the third year, 85% were employed in film-related jobs.
These two vibrant and charismatic women, both DOC members— Conteh George heads the Ontario chapter—obviously have a magic touch. Duke began in the mid ’90s as a director of music videos, then successfully pitched Raisin’ Kane: A Rapumentary (2001) to the National Film Board. Raisin’ Kane is about the struggle of her brother’s band “to navigate the Canadian music industry and to release an album in a climate where there was no Black radio. It was an immediate success,” Duke says with a sly grin. “It won the first prize at the 2001 Urbanworld Film Festival in New York and won the HBO documentary prize that same year.” Conteh George got her first break when she joined 149 filmmakers accepted into the NFB’s Momentum program, which offered a crash course on everything doc related. She was one of four selected to make a fully funded short, and created Soldiers for the Streets (2004), about young people in Toronto’s Keele and Eglinton area supporting others in the neighbourhood.
