Smart Banda | Through the Lens: Storytelling, Film & Community

In this compelling episode Tchiyiwe Chihana sits down with Smart Banda, a Zambian-born, Sheffield-based digital storyteller whose photography, filmmaking, and cultural work have become integral to the visual identity of some of the city’s most powerful creative platforms, including SBC Theatre, Migration Matters Festival, and Roots Mbili Theatre.

Smart reflects on his creative journey and how he first found his voice through photography and digital storytelling. He offers behind-the-scenes insight into curating visuals for live performance and activist campaigns, and speaks to the collaborative spirit that defines his work across diasporic Black art spaces in the UK. We explore the emotional and cultural depth of his new project capturing African parents through the eyes of their children, and dig into a thoughtful conversation on visual ethics, digital archiving, and the future of storytelling in communities often overlooked by mainstream media. Whether documenting resistance, memory, or celebration, Smart’s lens invites us to pause, connect, and reimagine who gets to be seen, and how.