“Fame itself is not something I strive for, but I would like my films to be seen.”

Theresa Traore Dahlberg is currently editing her first feature-length documentary, Du Courage, a bildungsroman shot in Burkina Faso. Her whole life, Theresa has split her time between the Sahelian nation and Sweden. It’s an arrangement she says has broadened her perspective and instilled a versatility at her core—a valuable set of attributes for a documentary filmmaker. Knee-deep in more than 170 hours of footage, Theresa discusses her drive to persist, challenge stereotypes and deliver the West Africa she loves to a bigger screen and audience.

What are your working days currently like?

I’m finishing my first feature documentary that was filmed in an all-girls school for car mechanics in Burkina Faso. It’s a film about making choices, friendship, lost mothers and pretty much the...