Jessie Chisi

Jessie Chisi is a Zambian film director, screenwriter and entrepreneur. She is a founder and Festival Director for the Zambia Short Film Festival and Young Cinema in Zambia through which she trains young filmmakers and entrepreneurs.

Education

Chisi graduated from The Zambia Institute of Mass Communication in 2008 and undertook further training as a film director in Finland in 2009.

Film career

An Alumni for Berlin and Durban Talent Campus, she has worked on various film sets including her own written and directed short fiction films “Goodbye”, “Every Woman Knows”, “Soldier”, “Buried”, "Between Rings" and “Her Nyari”.

Between Rings is her first feature length film co-directed with Salla Sorri. The film tells the story of Zambian professional boxing champion Esther Phiri and narrates Phiri’s battle to overcome poverty and make a few sacrifices along her path to became one of Zambia’s most talked about female athletes.

Activism

Chisi is fervent campaigner and supporter of human rights. She is also a Mandela Washington Fellow for 2015. She has used film as an advocacy and campaign tool, empowering women to find and use their own voices.

Awards

Her film “Woman On Hold” won her Women of the Year in Film. It opened in CPH doc; Helsinki Film Festival and it won Diploma of Merit at the 2015 Tampere Film Festival.