Daniel Danis (film director)

Daniel Danis (born 1986) is a South Sudanese film director and radio host.

Biography

Danis is half Dinka and half Nuer. He was born in what is now South Sudan but fled to Kenya at the age of seven due to the Second Sudanese Civil War. He settled at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. In 2000, at the age of 14, Danis helped found the Woyee Film and Theatre Industry to perform plays to keep busy at the camp. The group wrote and performed plays that on subjects that spoke to the refugees like HIV, domestic violence and women's rights. It attracted attention from non-governmental organizations, which hired Woyee to make short educational films, and Danis learned filmmaking from FilmAid International. After the war ended in 2005, the collective continued to grow and acquired an office in Juba. Danis and others devoted the money they made from making films for UN agencies into buying a camera and editing software. The Woyee group rotated the main roles of director, cameraman, actors, and crew among different members.