Dara Kell is an award-winning writer and director from Cape Town. Her latest film “A Ship From Guantanamo” was acquired by New York Times Op-Docs and has screened at film festivals around the world. Dara’s films, including “Dear Mandela” – a story of the Abahlali baseMjondolo Shack Dwellers Movement of Durban, South Africa – have been broadcast on PBS, TVFrance, and Netflix, and have won multiple awards.
Her short story “Small Holding” won the Zoetrope All:Story Fiction Contest in 2015 and her story “Exchanges” was selected for the 2020 Masters Review Anthology Volume IX. Dara has been a Story Advisor at the SKOLL Foundation / Sundance Institute ‘Stories of Change’ Convening and an editing consultant for multiple documentaries, including most recently Abby Ginzberg’s “Waging Change” about restaurant workers who come together to demand respect and one fair wage. Dara is a journalism graduate of Rhodes University and is working towards a Master’s degree in Visual History at University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
Her work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, the New York State Council on the Arts and the Ford Foundation, among others.
