A journey into film
Earlier this year, filmmaker Will Niava teamed up with Artlist for a unique challenge: to create a short film in one day. The Montreal-based, Ivory Coast-born, and Ghana-raised creative had a wealth of experience to draw on, having started his filmmaking journey at the age of 15. Since then, Will has become known as a raw and visceral storyteller, with his work rooted in West Africa, the US, and Canada.
Will is best known for his 2020 short film Zoo, which explores the link between race and authority through the story of a troubled man who encounters three outcasts. This film featured in hundreds of film festivals and won over twenty awards, including a spot in the prestigious Criterion Collection.
Since then, Will has worked on award-winning TV series, music videos, and commercials and partnered with Artlist since 2020. The team approached him after coming across Zoo, and he soon became one of the most popular contributors thanks to his provocative and cinematic visuals, so when Artlist challenged Will to make a short film in one day, we knew just how compelling it would be.
Influences and education
Growing up between the Ivory Coast and Ghana massively informed Will’s outlook and influences. He grew up speaking French as a first language, and relocated to Ghana when he was four years old after civil war broke out.
“These are the best African countries in terms of food and soccer, but not necessarily a place that encourages the arts,” Will says. “But I was very happy that my parents believed in us and encouraged us to do what we love and make sure there’s a business aspect to it.”
Will would spend his days playing soccer and his evenings watching films. “That’s how I learned English,” he says. “I was fascinated by these movies — I really liked Scorsese’s films and everything with Robert De Niro. I thought I might be an actor so I started acting in plays.”
During rehearsals, he became increasingly interested in directing. “Our director was this British woman, and it was very interesting how she made us get to the places we needed to get. I fell in love with how she communicated to us, got her ideas out, and collaborated with us to bring the story together,” says Will.
After that, Will expanded his taste, watching films from all over the world with a particular interest in French New Wave. “I wanted to elevate cinema in Africa at the time,” he says. “The Nigerian or Ghanaian films were very low quality, shot in a week or so, and I just didn’t want that to be our image internationally.”
He spent years filming short films, music videos, and projects with his friends and family, but when he applied for film school in Ghana, they rejected him — because they thought he was too advanced for their curriculum. So he applied for a scholarship at Concordia University in Montreal and was one of thousands of applicants to win it.
Related Posts
From music videos to award-winning films
By his second year at Concordia, Will was itching to get out into the world as a filmmaker. “So I started doing a bunch of free stuff to practice and find my voice and the thing that makes me unique,” he says. “So I explored and expanded, I did a bunch of hip hop and R ’n’ B music videos that are still my style, that kind of dynamic vibe, and I always included a narrative element.”
Will’s early film projects include a short film called Playground Warfare which depicts young adults play fighting with real artillery sounds dubbed over, and Bring Some Balls, a similar concept that shows kids and teens playing ball in Ghana. Both films shine with attitude and share themes of youthful joy and kinship. Will’s first music video was for a Canadian artist called MISTA KO for his song “SÉSÉ SÉKO” shot in 2013, and a video for Mawuli for a track called “I AM MAW.”
And after that, doors started to open. “I love music, and I think it was always an entry into this world,” he says. “Musical artists always need visuals and don’t always have people who can help that journey.” He started working with bigger and bigger artists, steadily growing his portfolio until global superstars were getting in touch and asking him to shoot their videos.
“I got to make a documentary about Billie Eilish for an Amazon live concert, shot in music video style,” he says. “I’ve done some projects with Apple Music and a series for MTV. But my most important project to date is still Zoo.”
Zoo was originally supposed to be a music video, but Will was so keen to change it up that he persuaded the producers to switch it into a short film. “Zoo changed my life, and that’s when I got discovered for real,” he says. The film expands on the concept of police brutality and brotherhood, and how a misunderstanding can spiral into disaster. The movie came out just before George Floyd was killed, and it caught a wave of support as a result.
“It was in the Criterion Collection for three years, I think it’s still in the archives, and for me, that is huge,” he says. “As a film geek that is the holy grail of film banks. They restore legendary films, and they have collections of the greatest films of all time, so for my very first short film to end up there was nothing short of insane.”
Artlist and the short film challenge
Will and Artlist teamed up in 2020 after the team came across Zoo. Will had been using Artlist for a while, so was already familiar with the company, and the Artlist team were fans of his compelling narrative storytelling, rooted in themes of identity. Needless to say, they’ve become an unstoppable partnership.
“They came at a time where I really needed the funds and support,” Will says. “The first footage I really put my stamp on was called Sisters in the Park,” Will says. “I still get a bunch of people sending me videos of that because they edited it and want to tag me and make me part of their collaboration.”
Last year, Will was on the phone with Lauryn Hill, planning a collaboration, when she asked her assistant to pull up some videos that she’d like Will to take inspiration from. “That was the video,” Will laughs. “I told her that’s my footage. And that was a really special moment for me. Incredible — the legendary Lauryn Hill.”
In his film work, Will loves to explore misunderstandings, language barriers, and marginalized characters. “Specifically Africans,” he says. “I like putting people in places they seem like they don’t belong, and they have to find some kind of belonging, like fish out of water stories.”
And that’s why Artlist selected Will to launch the one-day short film project. His unique approach to storytelling can inspire fellow video creators by showing just how much can be achieved in a short time and challenging them to do the same.
Filmed in LA, Will wrote the script, shot, and directed the film within just three hours. His aim was to showcase narrative storytelling alongside emotive cinematography with limited time and resources, something he’d learned from his days shooting music videos at the beginning of his career.
“I’ve gotten used to having time with the actors beforehand to brief them on what we’re doing, and set up a crew with lights to make things beautiful,” he says. “So it was a challenge. It took me back to my grad school days, when the most important thing was getting the emotion right and making sure the delivery is immaculate.”
The short film depicts the story of an overworked, exhausted father who picks up his child from school. He turns around and hallucinates that his son isn’t there, panics and starts hunting all over the neighborhood, until he turns around to see his son is still asleep in the back seat.
“I just wanted to create a bit of chaos, something that felt like an emotional loss, with something gained at the end,” Will says. “I wanted to create drama in a small moment, something that could happen in a very simple scene.”
Will curated a playlist from the Artlist catalog for the video that includes a wide range of artists and genres that can be used to breathe fresh life into the footage. Here are just a few of the songs he selected.
Some of the clips from this short film are available in the Artlist catalog for you to make your own, and give new meaning to a project that is deeply personal for Will. His father recently passed, so creating a scene with a father and son felt cathartic in many ways, and Will hopes this short film will inspire other creators to push their creative limits.
“I feel what stops people today is waiting for that perfect moment, but there is no perfect moment,” Will says. “You should just start. Take the time to develop something you feel proud of, but don’t spend an eternity on it. The best way to succeed is to do it over and over and over again.”
Looking to the future
Although he’s already achieved so much, Will has only just begun. He has a ton more projects lined up and many dreams yet to be fulfilled. “I’m working on a very important project called Jazz Inferno,” he says. “We shot 90% of it in the Ivory Coast and it’s my last short film before I turn to feature films. It has a big budget, and it tells a story that’s close to home and I think that’s what film is — an outlet to express the feelings you can’t say out loud. I needed to process my grief and this film has done that for me.”
To download and use Will Niava’s footage and song selections in your videos, royalty-free, join Artlist today.
Did you find this article useful?
