An Outsider's Lens Through The Looking Glass.

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Ali's cinematic endeavors are inspired by Thought (Huginn) and Memory (Muninn). Thought speaks to the present. Memory is rooted in the past.

Ali is entirely in his element when he is creating worlds and realms for his amoral and ambiguous characters to survive and strive in. What epitomes his inner peace are two-fold: To imagine a mosaic so beguiling and coherent, and then manifesting the physical components of the mosaic imagined. 

Like his books, Ali's films defy normative conventions. He violates comfort zones. He is primarily in the business of invention and creation, evolution and exploration. His work is pregnant with evocative imagery and provocative stories. He abhors stereotypes. He is an opponent of cliché. He does not subscribe to uniformity. He takes no prisoners. He rejects containment. So you are a captive audience of your own free will.

"Forgive my tenderless regard for your indignation, your convictions and superstitions, but there is no subject unholy that is too holy for scrutiny, no sanctuary untrodden for angels and devils alike to tred fearfully upon; no levers of piety to haul away from the mouthpiece of free inquiry because of your own ad hoc fears. For is not truth clearly distinct from falsehood? And aren’t I entitled to my truth; and you, yours?"   - Ali Kinteh.

Ali wrote Kevin & Cassandra, a film that explores Vilomah, the unquantifiable grief of parents borne from the loss of their only child. This film will serve as his directorial debut.

Ali has written and produced the screenplay to the neo noir film, Elixir, which explores the essence of existence and oblivion, living as though life lasts forever only to be overtaken by death, when it falls suddenly. Elixir is a homage to Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. 

A third offering, Itchy Eyeball, is also in the making. This film is a distillation of power, powerplay and politics in the job interview process. 

As of November 2024, Elixir and Itchy Eyeball are receiving pre-production treatment.

Kevin & Cassandra, starring Ali Kinteh and Fiona Mwaka Callan, will be filmed in London, in December 2024.

Ali has been commissioned into co-writing the pilot, plus the first two series of the crime-action television drama series, Brendan Baker. 

Ali often reflects upon the third verse of Rainer Maria Rilke's The Ninth Elegy. It enscapsulates the urgency of being and the necessity of action; a reminder that life is short, time is swift, the earnest need to do the work and to do the work extremely well.

... But because being here means so much; because everything here apparently needs us,

This fleeting world, which in some strange way keeps calling to us.

Us, the most fleeting of all.
Once for each thing. Just once; no more.

And we too, just once. And never again.

But to have been this once, completely,

even if only once:
To have been at one with the earth, seems beyond undoing...

You can find Ali's page on the Internet Movie Database website by clicking the button below: 

Ali has always been a mercurial outsider, constantly out of step with the wuthering tyranny of the world at large, and the vast majority of the people that inhabit it. This caused him much angst as an adolescent. He has since reconciled life's vagaries by taking refuge in his life's work.

As an auteur and author, he is in total control of whatever he produces. He admits to working autocratically and methodically in the pursuit of his objectives. He is comparable to a field marshal on the battlefield. Everything performed and filmed is done so with meticulous precision and extensive preparation. From the cadence of the actors' speech to the tiny prop on the mantelpiece, he is in complete charge on set. To paraphrase a famous quote from Judge Holden in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian: Whatever in his creation exists without his knowledge exists without his consent.

Ali did not attend film school. He dropped out of his Performing Arts A Level after five months. The rigidity of the classroom was at odds with the fluidity of his mind and suppleness of his spirit. He took a bewildering number of temping jobs whilst learning his favored craft. He has undertaken ample studies into styles, themes, tones, frames, shots and colors by spending hours observing films of all genres. He has taken the initiative by hiring his own ingenious crew, extracting some from film and theater sets, plucking others from online sites like IMDb and BFI, and the rest were either recommended personally or from networking socially. He is fiercely loyal to his collaborators. He is an ardent believer in cultivating good working relationships. He is an earnest investor in new, raw and undiscovered talent, behind and front of camera.

Ali's filmography is influenced by the works of Orson Welles, David Fincher, Woody Allen, Ousmane Sembène, Claire Denis, Gaspar Noé, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, David Lean, Herb Ritts, Tony Richardson, Leni Riefenstahl, Stanley Kubrick, Ingmar Bergman and his hometown native, Alfred Hitchcock.

Ali’s favorite 100 films of all time (after much pondering) are: A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, A Place In The Sun, A Separation, A Taste Of Honey, Alien, Amadeus, Anne Of The Thousand Days, Annie Hall, Apocalypse Now, Badlands, Being There, Ben Hur, Cabaret, Camp de Thiaroye, Catch 22, Cleopatra, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Chocolat, Citizen Kane, Cloverfield, Coraline, Deewar, Don't Look Now, Double Indemnity, Dr. Strangelove, Dr. Zhivago, Duel, E.T, Eraserhead, Get Carter, Great Expectations (1946), Five Easy Pieces, From Russia With Love, Godfather II, Gravity, Hope And Glory, Jason And The Argonauts, Jaws, Khartoum, King Kong (1933), Lawrence of Arabia, Look Back In Anger, Malcolm X, Mildred Pierce, Mulholland Drive, Network, Nosferatu, Night Of The Generals, No Country For Old Men, North By Northwest, Night Of The Living Dead, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Once Were Warriors, Persepolis, Platoon, Psycho, Raging Bull, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Rear Window, Repulsion, Reservoir Dogs, Roshomon, Rosemary's Baby, Save The Tiger, Scarface (1983), Se7en, Spartacus, Stand By Me, Straw Dogs, Taxi Driver, Terminator 2, The Birds, The Blair Witch Project, The Black Cauldron, The Elephant Man, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad, The Killing Fields, The Ipcress File, The Last Tycoon, The Lives Of Others, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), The Seven Commandments Of Kung Fu, The Seventh Seal, The Shawshank Redemption, The Spy Who Came From The Cold, The Ten Commandments, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Thief Of Bagdad, The Usual Suspects, The Whicker Man, The Wizard Of Oz, Three Days Of The Condor, Waltz With Bashir, Watership Down, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Unforgiven, Xala, Zero Dark Thirty, 101 Dalmations, 2001: Space Odyssey. 

Ali's film trailers will be available exclusively on his website.

Ali and Haylee Venus have co-founded Tahawal Theater Company. For more information, please click the button below: