kagablog

Akin’s debut feature film, God is African, was released in 2002. It was screened across South Africa and has appeared at film festivals all over the world. In this piece he contemplates: The Curse of the Second Film

“Akin, the worst has happened. Your mother passed away this morning.”

With those words from my father, my whole world came crashing down. Standing at the entrance of the SABC, I cried. My mother meant everything to my family. She inspired me and most of all she was an angel. Up till that moment my debut feature film, GOD IS AFRICAN was all that mattered to me. It was about to released. She missed the release by four weeks. The hype surrounding the film threatened to cripple me. I suddenly didn’t care what people thought of the film. I had worked myself to a lather of paranoia in the months before it was released. What if the critics slate it? Would it go down as the worst film of the year? All these fears went. I just wanted to be with my family and mourn. They came out in their droves to see my mother off. My auntie’s formed a circle round her coffin. We as the family testified to her greatness. We laid her to rest. She left us the rest of our lives to remember her.

GOD IS AFRICAN was released and people said what they had to say. I traveled to film festivals and met other filmmakers who were making their own films and moulding their own dreams. The midnight boat ride in Amsterdam with Sami Sabiti and Jason Xenopolos was beautiful. The lunch with Uncle Lionel(rest in peace), Patrick Shai and Eddie Mbalo was a treat in Paris. Talking film with Sechaba while eating plantains in Ougadougou was exhilarating. The film’s reception worldwide-priceless.

And through all the travels the questions came: what are you going to do next? In Los Angeles I cracked a joke when asked that question. I said I was making SON OF GOD IS AFRICAN. I have often thought of a sequel. Ten years down the line when the time might come to investigate Africa once again. In the meantime I watched films and read. Four years of working on GOD had hindered a lot of that. I went back to the mundane existence that is the human experience. All this, while mourning for my mother.

Lots of false starts along the road to the 2nd movie. Speaking with director Ken Kaplin(Pure Blood) and Gina from The National Film and Video Foundation, the discussion was rather to skip the 2nd film and just move onto the third! When making GOD I was certain my next film would be MY BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER. A comedy that I had started writing at the time of GOD. I had money from the NFVF to develop the script. I had done read throughs and felt I was on the way. Got a budget and a plan. It soon became obvious as I went along that this won’t be my second film.

I started my own company with two of the most respected people in the industry. Robbie Thorpe and Kgotmotso Matsunyane. T.O.M Pictures, made up of our surnames. World domination is our aim. We were blessed to have produced Craig Friedmond’s excellent script based on his play GUMS AND NOSES. I feel at home with Robbie and Kgotmotso. The vision is the same, the passion unparallel. No more would I be subjected to a man who promised me he was transforming Africa only to find out that it was a joke. I was home. And in the night my mother visited me in my dreams.
Started working on projects. Some stalled because of writers block. Bouncing the ball on the court brought physical gratification but couldn’t quench the thirst of what I was going to do next.

I travel to Barbados to celebrate my grandfather’s 80th . I take a camera with me to observe. Still haven’t a clue what I am doing. I meet producers in London to discuss future projects. All sounds very exciting. Everyone has a chart about what Akin Omotoso should be doing next.

GOD IS AFRICAN was good, they say, but you have to move beyond that now. You need to make your next film, they say, what is it?

I always wondered about filmmakers that make one film and you never hear from them again. Now I understand what they might have gone through. Your second film is as important as your first but in a way it’s even more important. The security blanket mentality is actually to have made one film. However, I am still known as the guy who made GOD, what happens if the next film is a dud? People are willingly to forgive a lot of things in GOD, would they be so kind next time out. Wonder what type of curse that carries? I guess if the film is a dud you will hurry to make the next and hopefully erase all memories of that one. So one has to pick and choose carefully the next project. Even though there are no guarantees, as I said it’s a lot cooler being known as the guy who made GOD, than the guy who made that awful film. But I know I can’t resist the lure of storytelling and the pull of the camera. It’s embedded in my bones and it forms the air I breathe. I will make that next film. I just don’t know what it will be! And all the while the questions continue “what are you doing next”. And through that process I realize that actually, the only pressure I should feel is the pressure to make a great film. I look around and check what my director friends are doing.

An exciting year for South African film. Brendan made his film HEY BOY. Norman Maake’s film finally gets to see the light of day as SOLDIERS OF THE ROCK plays to packed houses in Toronto and picks up awards in Los Angeles. Zola Maseko made MR DRUM. Ramadan shot ZULU LOVE LETTER with Pamela Nomvete. Tim made TWIST on the back of thousands of rand. Terry made MAX AND MONA. My friend Quanita Adams stars in FORGIVENESS with Arnold Vosloo and Lionel Newtown. Craig made GUMS AND NOSES. Hakeem kae Kazim is working on his MACBETH project and Sami Sabiti’s written his script. It’s going to be a good year.

I read a book that captures my imagination. It captures my imagination so much I drag my best friend Tony Kgoroge to Botswana to meet the writer. She meets us and is happy to have us turn her book into a film. Pictures with her daughter and a friend, a signed poster of GOD, a party in the evening and I know I have found my second film. The curse is lifted. I contact a producer in New York. I bring the project to him. He takes me on a tour of his friends in New York and Johannesburg. The deal is being put together. I update the writer and she seems excited, even sends me an sms saying to keep believing in the project. I have my directors treatment ready. I have a man to write the script. There is a potential cast. I harass the actresses on the sets of GENERATIONS and ISIDINGO to read the book! Its stunning. I am happy. I feel my mother is happy. I have found my second film.

Finalising the deal between my company and the producer is proving difficult. So difficult that the producer sidesteps us and offers the writer in Botswana more money and she accepts. So much for the poem she wrote in my copy of her book. Everyone around me is furious but not as furious as I am. Hard lessons have been learnt. The double crosser wrote me an email asking me to call him, so he can say when he eventually makes the film that he tried to reach out to him and I didn’t respond. The writer tells me to be professional. That at least made me laugh.

As the dust settles in my head and I go about my day to day life, I realize that my second film has always been in the making. It’s a film suggested to me at a time when I didn’t know what I wanted to do. My mother asks us to interview our grandparents about their life. Being amongst the first West Indian immigrants to London. In 1999 when I was there we spoke of it. At the premiere of GOD in Barbados in 2002, we spoke of it. Before my mother died we spoke about it. I filmed my cousins, my grandparents, uncle and aunties getting stories about them. The footage sits in my cupboard. On a hot Saturday when the world watches the MANDELA AIDS concert, I watch the footage at my friend’s house. In that moment, I see my mother. I see what she meant. I know what she wants to see. A film starts forming in my head. It comes from deep in the soul. My soul. It doesn’t involve shady producers or people who promise you that they will set the world on fire for you only to forget to buy the matches. It’s rooted in the sounds of the Calypso music, the recipes of my grandfather and the beauty of my aunt Vonne. It rests in the streets of Cave Hill, the beautiful beaches of Barbados and the smile on the beautiful girl I met who said we used to play together as kids. At my mothers memorial in Barbados, I heard her voice. As my moms friends got the chance to pay their last respects, I heard her voice. She whispered to me. I nodded. I knew what my film would be. And as I embark on that journey, I buy my smarties and coke at the cinema and sit back in the dark to watch all these new South African films about the blast out into the world.

Thank you, Mummy.

this article first appeared on coffeebeans.co.za