Born in Kinshasa, Alain Kassanda left the DRC for France at the age of 11.

He has programmed several film festivals such as Ghett’Out Film Festival at the Brattle Theatre in Boston and BAM in New York. Kassanda has also been the film programmer for the movie-theater Les 39 marches in Sevran, near Paris, for five years and created the festival A hauteur d’enfant, committed to films narrated from children’s perspectives.

As a spoken word artist, Kassanda is also known as Apkass, one of the founder members of the poetry collective Chant d’encre, largely inspired by role-models like The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron.

Kassanda is the founder of production company Ajímatí Films. Colette and Justin is his first feature length film, after Trouble Sleep, a mid-length documentary shot in Ibadan (Nigeria) where he lived from 2015 to 2019. New release Coconut Head Generation won the Grand Prize at the 2023 Cinéma du Réel Festival.

Icarus Films is proud to distribute three of Alain Kassanda's films. Discover more of our featured filmmakers.