Rodney Bidi Kimbangu

Rodney Bidi Kimbangu was born on February 8, 1992, in Kinshasa, Congo (DRC), to Innocent Kimbangu and Josephine Bidi. He grew up in Ndjili, a suburban part of Kinshasa, where he went to Bonsomi, a Jesuit high-school. After Bonsomi, he attended an engineering school and earned an associate degree in civil engineering. He then moved to the United States of America to attend Dartmouth College in 2016 under the Mandela Washington Fellowship (President Barack Obama's flagship program). There, he studied Business and Entrepreneurship with a focus on Design Thinking and Design Driven Entrepreneurship. A few weeks later, he then went on to attend Berea College to earn a double degree in Painting and Film & Media Production. During his time at Berea, in 2018, he became a University Innovation Fellow, and shortly after attended the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, where he was part of a summer eight-week intensive Filmmaking program. Rodney is a life-long learner driven by a deep desire to produce thought-provoking and intriguing art. One of his leadership superpowers is connectedness. He sees things the way they can become, and believes everything is connected. Because of it, he enjoys taking online classes whenever he can, and has taken Masterclasses in Directing, Filmmaking, Documentary, Photography, Performing, and Acting. Some of his instructors, as well as Masterclass instructors include Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Spike Lee, Ken Burns, David A. Armstrong, Shane Hurlbut, Andrew St. Pierre White, Annie Liebovitz, Usher, Christina Aguilera, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jordan Brady, to name a few. As a writer, producer, director, cinematographer, and editor, Rodney has made short films including Lituka (2019), a personal project that followed an entrepreneurial young boy who makes charcoal stoves in the Congo (DRC), Unfulfilled (2020), a student color grading capstone project, and Forever in Motion (2018). He has also been a cinematographer on Mirage (2018). Rodney has always wanted to be a filmmaker. While he had no clue how he'd do it, he learned drawing, sculpting, dance, painting, computer coding, as well as photography to keep his creative mind active. Dreams and the human condition inspire him; often, Rodney wakes up on portions of scenes that he quickly writes on sticky notes. While looking forward to, one day, working in movies starring Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Helen Mirren, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, and Tom Cruise, he is now developing his next short film.