ANIMA, TO THEE, MY SOUL

Directors:

Writers:

Diane Goueto Degry

Producers:

Diane Goueto Degry

Run Time:

0:13:54

Awarded for the following Category(s):

Awarded Category(s)

Amina, an Afro-descendant in New York, feels adrift from herself and the lineage she carries. Under the care of Dr. Koné-Johnson, a psychoanalyst focused on the African diaspora, she begins peeling back silence and memory until ancestral voices find their way back to her.

Submitter Statement

Anima, To Thee, My Soul, is a poetic and cinematic meditation on the ancestral soul, memory, and belonging. Inspired by a poem from my collection entitled "Les Murmures de la Muse et du Damné d’Amour" (2025), the film is a dialogue between archive and presence, silence and voices, gestures and reflective purpose.

Anima, To Thee, My Soul, arises from the need to honor ancestral echoes while carving a voice in the present, modern world.

Diane Goueto Degry, born in France to Ivorian parents and currently based in the United States, is a writer, filmmaker, and reflective consultant whose work explores the intersections of diaspora, memory, and creation.

After graduating from a business school in 2014, she initially pursued a corporate career before choosing to realign her path with her true vocation. Then, she obtained a Bachelor in Philosophy and Humanities, a certification in the Film & TV industry and is now pursuing a Master’s in Research in Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Political Economy. Her academic research, literary production, and cinematic work are deeply interconnected, making the existential question of diaspora both the soul of her scholarship and the nucleus of her artistic practice.

Author of two published novels and a book of existential poetry, Diane extends her narrative practice into film, with projects such as Rebirth (2023), Anima, To Thee, My Soul (2025) and the feature Abeni (in development), both exploring transgenerational memory and diasporic belonging.

Key Cast

Jael Hadas, Teyonna Johnson

Other Credits