Profile Details
- Country: Canada
- Province/State: Ontario
- City: Toronto
- How do you Identify?: Black, Nigerian-Canadian, Female, Cis, She/Her
- Field of Work: Fiction/Scripted and Documentary
- Union: Non-Union
- Interested In: Directing Film/Digital for Hire, Directing Music Videos/Commercials, Developing my own Film/TV/Digital Material, and Shadowing
- Recent Credits: "(UN)CERTAINTY" (2019, stills photographer), "Mas" - Anique Jordan at the AGO (2016, cinematographer), "Indie Womyn" (2015, cinematographer, director), "City Music" (2014, cinematographer), "Toronto's Great War Attic" (2014, cinematographer)
- Contact Information: gesila.azorbo@gmail.com
- Link: http://www.gesilaazorbo.com/
Bio
Gesilayefa Azorbo is a Toronto-based creative hyphenate (writer, photographer, filmmaker and film festival multi-tasker) with an abiding love of music, film, TV and literature.
Her creative work explores themes related to creativity and identity. As a photographer and a filmmaker she loves to shoot creative portraits and profiles of artists in their element, including her first documentary “Indie Womyn”, profiling Juno-nominated Toronto/Kitchener artist Alysha Brilla.
Her videojournalism includes covering cultural festivals like Caribana, Afrofest, and the first downtown Toronto powwow in 2017. She has also worked as a documentary videographer with the City of Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Rainbow Railroad, and Ryerson University.
Her film festival work ranges from programming at Planet In Focus and Guelph Film Festival, to Industry at Hot Docs, to her current role in Communications with Reelworld Film Festival. Earlier stints include being a student programmer for Images Festival, and a Critics Panel member for Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival.
Intro
My name is Gesilayefa Azorbo, but I go by Gesila if you know me in real life! I am someone who is always working in or around the film industry— currently in the festival side of things, but always practicing my craft as a photographer/filmmaker outside of that. Pre-pandemic, I had started development on a documentary exploring the experiences and perspectives of life models, a.k.a. art models – the muses behind the creation of figurative art. I am also a writer in other mediums (poetry, prose, journalism), and currently teaching myself screenwriting.
Reel/Clips