Sarah Kizza Nsigaye
Advisory Committee Member
Over twenty years hands on experience in the Media, Arts and Cultural sector, as a Journalist, Filmmaker and Curator.
Currently the Executive Director Native Voices International, Sarah spent the first eight years of her career as a Journalist / Documentary Filmmaker before joining Uganda ‘s maiden Film Festival the Kampala Amakula Kampala International Film Festival, where she managed the annual East African Film Congress as well as all the Outreach programs through the mobile cinema and community dialogues.
In 2012 Sarah founded Native Travel Festival now Native Voices International with a view of amplifying the local voice by enabling communities to tell stories from a local perspective through organizing filmmaking trainings to community based members and thereafter, providing them with tools and platforms to share their stories.
Awarded the 2019 Women in Film Diamond Honoree for her efforts in amplifying Women’s Voices, Sarah is a strong believer in gender equity and pursues this mission through profiling women’s stories, organizing an annual women’s festival, annual women’s conference and award giving ceremony, where individuals and institutions promoting the women cause are recognised
She has also been awarded many fellowships including America’s State Research Bureau Irex Community Solutions in 2012, The Arterial Network Winter school in Cameroon and Flaherty Foundation Fellowship at Colgate University in 2011.
A strong believer in the power of networks, Sarah is the Vice Chairperson Alliance for Campaign Finance Monitoring (ACFIM), an umbrella body with sixteen member organizations across Uganda. Her collaboration efforts extend to the region and continent where she has represented East Africa’s to the continent wide Arterial Network 2009 – 2011 as well as Chairperson East African Filmmakers Forum 2007 – 2009. She has also served on several Artistic and Cultural Boards including Africa Arts Kollektive and DOA DOA.
She studied Democracy and Development at Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi; holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication from St. Lawrence University, a Diploma in Journalism from the International Institute of Business and Media Studies and many other certifications earned from the different filmmaking, journalism and cultural management trainings she has attended.
