By Sanaa Elcock
With every film, audiences are transported into new worlds – but behind the magic is a team of editors carefully shaping every frame. Among them is Barbadian talent Sonja Moses, whose love for
story-telling has carried her into a career working on acclaimed documentaries and music videos.
Born to Nigerian and Barbadian parents, Moses first fell in love with television at age ten while watching Anthony Bourdain with her father.
*“I had fallen in love with his adventures,”* she recalled. *“I didn’t know the exact terms back then, but that show lit up a light bulb. From there, I fell in love with journalism.”
Encouraged by her father, she pursued a bachelor of arts in media and journalism at the Barbados Community College. By her third year, she discovered her true calling.
“I don’t want to be on camera, I don’t want to be in a spotlight. I want to be in a little dark cave just editing and working away,” she said, laughing.
Her interest deepened during a feature writing class taught by Professor Cynthia Nelson, where she connected with documentary filmmaking.
“It was that class where, like, I made the connection, like wanting to work in documentary filmmaking, but again, I didn’t know which career I wanted to pursue cause I could be anything in documentary film”, she explained. Yet, as she worked on her thesis and applied to master’s programmes abroad, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Everything was shut down . . . . It was a tiny bit scary,” she said. “But if there’s one thing I had,
it was my parents backing me through whatever.”
That support gave her the strength to push forward. Moses earned acceptance to two prestigious universities, ultimately choosing the School of Visual Arts in New York City for a master’s in social documentary filmmaking.
The transition was challenging, marked by long commutes and sleepless nights in edit suites, but she persevered.
“Most days, you’d see me sleeping at school, but you just needed to graduate and get the work done.”
Her determination paid off. After graduation, and with a work visa, she landed her first industry role as an archival researcher on the ABC Studios and Hulu documentary Where is Private Delaney? Since then, she has contributed to projects for Netflix, HBO, and ABC, including Cold Case JonBenet Ramsey, Never Let Him Go and Issa Rae’s Seen And Heard. She’s also edited music videos for Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, and Lady Gaga.
Now stepping into her role as lead assistant editor on an upcoming project for Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and musician Stevie Wonder, Moses reflects with gratitude.
“Without my parents and my upbringing, I would not be here.”
And to young Caribbean creatives, her advice is simple: “Do not let the popular island opinion get to you. Shove away the background noise and just go for it.”
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