At that point did you know art was what you wanted to do?
My secret dream was to become a filmmaker, a director, because I think for me, making films would have been a way to bring all of the different influences I grew up with into one form of expression. I could bring the story telling, the writing from books, the visuals from graphic novels, the music. So that’s what I wanted to do.
After my little stunt in law school, I realized I really had to dedicate myself to it, and I didn’t want to, so I decided to try something else. I didn’t have the balls to tell my parents straight up that I didn’t want to go to school, so I ran away! At the time I thought the plan was brilliant: I decided, since I wanted to make films, and since there are no film schools in Senegal, that all I needed to do was meet one of my favorite directors at the time, offering him my services, and I would learn the craft. So one day I packed my stuff and disappeared. My goal was to go to Burkina Faso, meet with Idrissa Ouedraogo, one of the most famous directors at that time, and offer him my services, in exchange for some learning. So I took the train to Mali, then a taxi brousse to Burkina - the whole trip was quite hectic.
I get to Ouagadougou, I find his office, I walk into the office, as the most confident 19 year old ever (Oh my god I was such a clown!), I find his assistant, I give her my name. She looks at me a bit like she would a crazy person, then tells me the guy doesn’t even live in Burkina Faso anymore, he moved to Paris years ago!
So I had to go back to Dakar, my tail between my legs. In retrospect, the trip was not a total loss, because it became pretty obvious I was not going to go to college. It was a turning point in my life, it was the first time I indulged myself into art, without bothering to pretend to study. It’s the first time my parents gave me full range to explore. It also happened because my uncle died when I was 17.
So I divided my time between writing, painting, and the usual music and art exploration. I started hanging out with local artists in Senegal, being an apprentice, learning the craft. One of my biggest tutors was a painter called Le Kara. I was in my early 20s by then.
When I was 23, I wrote a story that I submitted for publication for what was then the biggest newspaper in Senegal, Le Soleil. And surprisingly enough, the story was published! That gave me enough credit for my parents to support my artist career. So they decided to help me find a film school. That’s how I ended up in Los Angeles! First we were looking at FEMIS in France, and at the last minute, we were having dinner, and one of my aunties asked if it wasn’t better for me to go straight to Hollywood?
So I moved to the US in 1995.
