Cinematic Savage

Cinematic Savage (a.k.a. Darren Wallace) is a writer/director from Baton Rouge Louisiana. He has worked in moving image production (tv, commercial, film) for 10 years. During the wake and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he attended Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans receiving a BA in Communications/Broadcasting while receiving honors in Theology and Creative Writing. Here he began his foray into filmmaking writing and directing Working Girl, a short film which won 3rd place in the 2009 HBCU Student Film Festival. Following this, Darren worked within the commercial production department of KCTV-5, a Kansas City, Missouri CBS affiliate. Two years later, after receiving his degree, Darren assisted director Barnard Jaffier in the production of the BET documentary Heart of the City: Katrina 5 Years Later. Summer of 2012, He worked within the camera department of Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave. In 2014 Darren completed his MFA in Directing at Columbia College of Chicago where he met Julian Walker and formed Kinfolk Collective, a black radical tribe of artists and scholars researching the intersections of black cultural production and liberation politics. For 4 years now Darren has taught experimental and documentary filmmaking via his collective. Currently Darren and the scientists and shamans at Kinfolk are researching a new cinematic narrative language extracted from the the lived experience of the African Diaspora. His most recent film, Savage vs. The Void, has played at AFROPUNK, the New Orleans International Film Festival, and Philadelphia's Black Star Film Festival.