Twenty-six year old charmer Daniel Dembélé is equal parts West African and Italian, and looking to make his mark on the world. Seizing the moment at a crossroads in his life, Daniel returns to his homeland in Mali to start a local business building recycled solar panels from scraps – the first of its kind in this sun-drenched nation near the Sahara Desert. Daniel’s goal is to electrify the households of rural communities, 99% of which live without power. BURNING IN THE SUN is the story of Daniel’s journey of growing his idea into a viable company, and to see his dream of improving the lives of his countrymen realized, beginning with the small village of Banko. With controversial stances on sustainable energy, poverty, and African self-sufficiency, the documentary explores what it means to become your own man and the small steps that can change the destiny of a nation.
Cambria Matlow is a film director, writer and editor based in Portland, OR with experience in narrative, documentary, commercial and music video. By illuminating identities, relationship dynamics and the mirror of the natural world, her mood-laden storyworlds aim to disrupt and bring people back to their own wholeness.
Matlow was named a 2008 IFP Documentary Lab Fellow and in 2016 received the inaugural Oregon Film/PLAYA Screenwriting Award. Her award-winning documentaries NO MORE DOPE PARTIES (2019), WOODSRIDER (2017) and BURNING IN THE SUN (2010) have been selected for Independent Film Week, broadcast on Al Jazeera and PBS, released digitally through distributors Cinema Libre, Bullfrog Films and Uncorked Entertainment, and screened in festivals and cinemas worldwide including New York’s Lincoln Center and Santa Barbara Int’l Film Festival.
Her films have been described as “hauntingly beautiful” by Willamette Week and ”relaxing and contemplative” by the Los Angeles Times. WHY DIG WHEN YOU CAN PLUCK (2024) marks debut as a Writer/Director in the narrative film space.
