When it rains, it pours — just ask Las Vegas filmmaker Hisonni Mustafa.
When we last spoke to Mustafa, in 2021, he had just released the full-length feature, “Take Out Girl.” Since then, he’s graduated from the College of Southern Nevada and begun studying film at UNLV, all while grinding away at several short documentary films and PSAs.
Over the last nine months, those works have racked up several awards — including four Student Emmys, a Webby, and, most recently, a Directors Guild of America Student Spotlight Award for Underrepresented Directors, which Mustafa called "the greatest honor I have ever received as a filmmaker."
On June 22, Mustafa premiered his latest short film, “Gospel for Ghosts,” in Atlanta — the result of his work with the Tyler Perry Studios Dream Collective incubator. And he's already working on his next two projects.
"I'm a nonstop sort of guy," Mustafa told KNPR's "State of Nevada" a day after debuting "Gospel For Ghosts" and a day before winning his DGA award. "I really want to succeed as a filmmaker, and there's a piece of me that has always believed that that comes from constant output. I think if I get to a point where I have proper financing and proper resources to make a film, I'll slow down and put more energy into those projects. But until then, I'm going at 100 miles an hour."
To wit: One of Mustafa's next projects is a coming-of-age film, which he'll shoot in July. It's part of his work as a Rideback Rise Fellow, which comes with a $40,000 grant and access to film industry mentors.
Mustafa won the Directors Guild of America award — and 10 others — for "Legend Has It: The Remarkable Rise of Stephen McCain," about a former Olympic gymnast for the U.S. team. He's also won multiple awards for "Bang Bang," a PSA about gun violence and censorship at schools. The Commercial Directors Diversity Program helped him with funding and film crew personnel.
Mustafa likens his bounty of opportunities and accolades as a snowball effect.
"The awards feel good," he said. "They feel like they're like mile markers toward a destination, more so than anything else. I think they'll be really cool for my kid to look at one day when he's on his journey toward whatever he wants to do, and he can draw whatever motivation and whatever sense of confirmation he needs along the way. And also, it's just cool to represent Las Vegas and CSN and UNLV as best I can."
Guest: Hisonni Mustafa, filmmaker
