Lola Mosanya
Room Rodeo
Project Statement
Room Rodeo is a stylized drama-documentary about a wide-eyed boy determined to complete a class project that proves he is the great grandson of a legendary Black cowboy. But when his beliefs are challenged, he takes matters into his own hands.The aim of Room Rodeo is to expand the representation of Black stories, those both urban and rural, and truly intergenerational while educating children aged 8-11 on the rich history and legacy of Black Cowboys in America. Using a mixture of scripted drama, archival footage and unscripted documentary interviews we conducted with real Black cowboys and their communities all over the USA, Room Rodeo uses wit, wonder and a whole lot of history to tell this story. Room Rodeo premiered at Chicago International Children’s Film festival in November 2021 and in March 2022 it screened at New York International Children’s Film Festival - the two oscar-qualifying film children’s film festivals in the world.
Artist Biography
Lola Mosanya is a journalist, filmmaker, copywriter and recent Creative Producing MFA graduate. As a filmmaker her work is research and community lead where she combines documentary and scripted drama elements. In any medium, her favorite work to create is that which allows Black protagonists of all ages to shine in life’s quiet moments. She first experienced this with a short digital documentary titled Learning My Mother Tongue (BBC, 2018). It’s an intimate conversation between a British-Nigerian daughter and her mum when she asks why she was never taught her mother tongue. It was here she learnt that exploring these quiet spaces on camera could make noise in the real world. She wanted to replicate this impact and has gone on to do so by exploring this space primarily amongst Black women protagonists, garnering hundreds of thousands of views on platforms like Youtube and invites to discuss her work on panels in the process. Coming to Columbia as a 2019 Fulbright Scholarship Awardee, she became interested in how her work extends to children and coming of age stories - particularly those rarely afforded the luxury of quiet on screen. Scarcely seeing Black boys being insular in their own spaces unless it is at the site of abuse, her current work is a co-production titled Room Rodeo. It is a short drama-documentary about a wide-eyed boy determined to complete a class project that proves he is the great grandson of a legendary Black cowboy. Part history, part childlike wonder, Mosanya's protagonist finds strength when he is left alone to discover it.