Born thousands of miles away from Virginia in the north of Senegal, Mamadou Dia, assistant media studies and French professor, had an unlikely and inspiring journey to teaching at the University. Since joining the University in 2021, Dia has taught filmmaking in the media studies and French departments. His unique background — both in culture and in the trajectory of his career — has informed his approach to the film industry as a whole, including directing, writing and cinematography.
“When you are from that part of Africa, people mostly expect the same stories,” Dia said. “ … there are more stories beyond the one people expect from me. So film was, for me, the best way to tell that.”
Dia did not always have his eyes set on a career in filmmaking, however. Though he was passionate about movies from a young age, he grew up in an area lacking exposure to filmmaking opportunities.
“I grew up in northern Senegal, and film wasn't a childhood dream … I loved movies ... But, I didn't even realize at first that this is something I could do, because I didn't know filmmakers in my circle at all," Dia said.
Initially Dia pursued a career in hydrology, studying at the University of Dakar in Senegal’s capital. He hoped to ameliorate the water shortages in his less urbanized and drier home of northern Senegal, which borders the arid Sahara desert. His experiences in the nation’s bustling capital, however, unveiled a new passion — video journalism.
“Dakar is such a big city that … I wanted to share what I was seeing every day … It was like coming from a small town and then going to New York City,” Dia said. “There are so many things to discover, so many people, so many activities. So that's how I started. And then I went to video journalism.”
In his time from 2008 to 2014 as a Dakar-based video journalist, Dia worked for prominent international news agencies like the Associated Press, African Television News and French newspaper Agence France-Presse. His journalism often covered political and economic events across Africa, with freelance work more central to Dakar.
Considering his time in video journalism, Dia credited traveling and a desire to share his experience globally as what developed his love for filmmaking. Storytelling is perhaps the part of filmmaking that most induces Dia’s love for the medium.
“Traveling, I think, brought me to filmmaking, because when you travel, you realize how big the world is and how small we are as individuals,” Dia said.
In 2017, Dia moved to the United States to get a Master’s degree of Fine Arts in writing and directing from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, jumpstarting the era of his filmmaking career that led to his position at the University.
However, Dia is experienced within the business side of the film industry as well. As co-founder of JoyeDidi, Dia and his business partner Maba Ba promote, produce and fundraise Dia’s films and other African projects. The company launched in 2018 as a means of production for stories from their underrepresented perspective, with one of them being Dia’s first feature-length directorial effort, 2019’s “Nafi’s Father.” Since then, it has sought to promote nearby African movies and documentaries with unapologetic and genuine narratives.
Dia’s projects tend to focus on authentic and human stories — grappling with universal topics like grief, family and community. That focus on raw experience over spectacle carries over into his teaching, as he instructs students in their low-budget film projects to focus on authenticity and concision in their scripts as well as availability on their sets. Over a semester in Dia’s media studies class, students split into groups to film and edit their own short films — the culmination of scriptwriting and creative efforts that begin on the first day.
Teaching others, for Dia, is also self-educating. The diversity in his classes, he says, broadens the horizons of the types of films that he watches on his own. He describes his lecture halls as a shared writer’s room, a space where avid student filmmakers can collaborate and bond over their long-term class filmmaking projects.
On top of his emphasis towards sincere storytelling, Dia’s teaching philosophy focuses on cultivating engagement with all facets of the art.
“Film is not only an intellectual exercise, it's very practical,” Dia said. “The more you know the technical part of it, I think the better off you would be as a filmmaker. For me, it's important that the filmmakers in class also learn how to use a camera … how to record sound … how to edit … knowing how much time it takes and what the possibilities are makes them better.”
With respect to the practicality in filmmaking, Dia makes a point to share movies from all over the world in his classes, exposing how cinematic techniques and relatable stories both make film a “universal language.” According to Dia, audiences often resonate with films via the personal and emotional themes in their narratives, along with the creative techniques of the filmmaking process itself.
“We're not only watching American movies, we're watching movies that are made from everywhere," Dia said. “Different worlds still use the same technique and grammar ... There are 1000 places where you can put the camera ... So it ends up being a universal language."
While many professors produce research and publications on their path to tenure, the University afforded Dia the opportunity to continue making his own films in lieu of that typical research requirement. During his summers, winters and weekends, he works on those personal productions. Notably, his most recent film, “Demba,” was released in 2024 — three years after he began at the University.
“Demba” follows a grieving widower in northern Senegal through his mourning near the anniversary of his wife’s passing. It was an official selection at the 37th Virginia Film Festival in 2024.
Another one of his acclaimed films, “Nafi’s Father,” impressively was Senegal’s Oscars entry for “Best International Feature” in 2021. The film revolves around a marital dispute that snowballs into dangerous religious fundamentalism, another “grounded” topic. The film was also screened by the French department on Grounds in Newcomb Theater to packed seats.
Dia said that he has been able to further his career in film while also finding a supportive community at the University, all of which has contributed to his passion for film and education as a whole. With his unparalleled route into filmmaking and education, he is joined and enriched by a thriving group of passionate students and faculty in the arts.
“I love U.Va. because the level of students is just amazing … the way that people consume film and art, and they're willing to go above and beyond to make their films, that's amazing,” Dia said. “I've met filmmakers and professors of other classes who became mentors, not mentors just in teaching, but mentors in life … U.Va. has this kind of community that many people who live there really believe in, and it’s just a blessing and a pleasure to be a professor.”
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