NEW YORK FESTIVALS INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION AND FILM AWARDS
IVCA LONDON INTERNATIONAL AWARD
SAFTA GOLDEN HORN AWARD
For over 2 decades now Sofia has directed films for television stations, multi-nationals, advertising agencies, governments, charities, the web, internet channels, presidents, Sheikh and Kings. She has filmed in UK, Jordan, Qatar, Lebanon, UAE, Namibia, Gabon, Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, Italy, Germany, France, Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq and United States of America. She directs short fiction films, corporate films, branded content films, TV series, dramatic documentaries, feature film documentaries, heart-wrenching fund-raising films and small commercials and internet films.
Sofia grew up in UK and immigrated to South Africa when she was 6 years old. After studying English, Psychology, Politics and Law, Sofia began her career as a junior copywriter in an advertising agency. She penned her first article “Bara Blues” from a blood splashed ER unit and a local magazine snapped it up. She quickly carved out a niche for herself developing her skill as a scriptwriter and soon had written 500 documentaries that were distributed to 18 territories worldwide. In the beginning she specialized in wildlife and anthropological scripts. She quickly secured her footing with international channels and worked for National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel.
The challenges have been many. A tough Discovery Channel assignment forced her to venture deep into the jungles of Gabon where she recorded the dying language of a disappearing tribe of Baka pygmies. She worked in China for CCTV directing a children’s series that highlighted the importance of Great White Sharks and Black Rhinos. Her investigations have led her into the dangerous gangland of Hillbrow, South Africa to reveal the operations of drug cartels and prostitute rings. In June 2011, the worst famine in 60 years left 12,5 million people without food and water in Somalia. Sofia entered Dadaab camp and captured the unspeakable suffering of the mothers who had lost most of their children on the road to death. The film she directed raised US 40 million dollars for relief. A year later she directed a film in Bosnia raising money and awareness for the cancer victims caused by the depleted uranium used in the war. She has been involved in a series of films to raise awareness for breast cancer in the Middle East and to stop human trafficking. In 2013 she was involved in an oil and gas film that analyzed the effects of global warming and it was observed how the increase in ocean temperatures had increased the destruction of coral reefs in Thailand. In 2015, Sofia filmed on the border of Lebanon and Syria and Iraq in refugee camps interviewing the survivors of the civil war. In Erbil many of these refugees had escaped Isis. After the refugee crises, she covered the devastating 7.8 earthquake that struck Nepal.
Sofia’s story-telling ability fuses a gritty tough realism with a stylized cinematic eloquence. Her documentary work focuses on the plight of courageous and strong women who face violence, sorrow and devastation and continue to add value. For her, the questions are more important than the answers.
So, she continues to ask the questions.
Phone: +97150 2461597
Email: sofia@sofiadefay.com
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