
Friends in the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement: Julian and Sauti subject Napona.
Courtesy of NeeNee Productions
Sauti (Voice) Trailer from NeeNee Productions on Vimeo.
That’s how Nosal became a filmmaker and producer in 2012, after long careers in advertising and with nonprofit organizations.But rather than taking complete creative control of her first project, Nosal was sometimes a bystander when it came to the actual storytelling. The resulting film, Sauti, focuses on five remarkable young refugee women —Beatrice, Betty, Favourite, Napona and Peninah — who took charge of their own stories, both as filmmakers and as human beings. Their vérité film diaries are interspersed with drawings, animations and traditional interview sections. Sauti will screen this Friday, October 19, at Edge Gallery in Lakewood, where a concurrent exhibit of artworks by refugees is hanging.
“The girls were given Handycams to do their own work for the film; their lives are seen through their eyes,” explains Emma Whitehead, a spokeswoman for Nosal’s NeeNee Productions. “The word 'sauti' means ‘voice’ in Swahili.”
After its extended production time, women of Sauti did eventually gather in Kampala for a screening of the finished film. “Being with them in Kampala and having them see the film was really powerful for them,” Whitehead says. “It’s powerful to be a young woman anywhere, but for them to see how, even in a community of maybe one hundred people, that their stories are valued was transformational for them.”

Sauti subject Favourite Regina with her likeness by artist Karen Fisher.
Courtesy of NeeNee Productions
Regina will join Nosal and three more panelists at Edge for a screening of Sauti and a discussion of the plight of refugees here and abroad, a shared experience for all forced nomads that she hopes will also ring true with refugees now making new lives for themselves in the metro area.
Sauti screens on Friday, October 19, at 7 p.m. at Edge Gallery, 7001 West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, in conjunction with Voice: A Celebration of Refugee Stories, an art exhibition of experiential artworks by a wide spread of refugee and professional artists. The show includes the artwork of Coloradan Karen Fisher, whose images of the women of Sauti are used for the film’s promotional poster. The exhibition runs through October 28; 20 percent of all art sales will benefit programs for refugees. Learn more at the Sauti Facebook page and website.