kagablog

Why the concept?

The idea actually came to life embryonically in a restaurant downtown
Jozi, at Niki’s Oasis in Newtown to be precise. Embryonic because it was
an infantile conversation that sprung it to my attention, more so
intrigued by the conversation’s inherent innocence, hence the comical
approach to debating the topic of xenophobia. Everyone was inebriated of
course, more so when you could comprehend the extend of the zeal that
fueled that binge session we congregated at, after shooting a play
directed by Ms. Warona Seane – For Colored Girls Who Have Considered
Suicide by the American playwright and poet Ntozake Shange. The Alexandra
Township Horror dimension was the main focal point of the discussion
incidentally, with many of the acquaintances attempting to rationalize the
consequences by dealing with some purported causes to the pandemic – like
unemployment, poverty, allowing a visitor to carry your crops back to
their homesteads because of some revolutionary allegiance and many other
sexuality oriented causes and effects. There were tiresome philosophical
discourses exuded by many at the table; talk about some reinvention of
Orientalism versus Occidentalism – the vision of otherness, even some
brushed up with antique thoughts about the construction of EGO and its
self-awareness being molded out of an awareness of the other and vise
versa.

The sublime momentum of the conversation fascinated me, the comprehension
of minute details around the foundation of myths constructed by what most
call a colonial syndrome, making a transparent figure through whom the
naiveties could take true gravity – I could then extract ideas of
sexuality based xenophobic responses through dialogues like: Once you go
Black you can’t go back; economical xenophobia as pronounced by low wage
exploitation of foreigners, and the subsequent neglect of local labor
forces in need of capacity by the informal labor sector and most commonly
the myths constructed by notion of beauty as characterized by western
convention – that THEY are too black, THEY smell, even that THEY use BLACK
magic, etc. It became evident that the issue of Xenophobia should then
require to be dealt with from the minor and not congratulatory
perspective, which would border naïve innocence in order to unearth the
deeply entrenched misconceptions, even those that seem unrelated to such a
form of hatred but still prevalent within our collective social psychic
construct.

So, the idea was there, intriguing and dense; requiring extensive analysis
and scrutiny for a proper execution that would reach the intended
objective in the psyche of the audience envisaged.
I had minor production experience since film school (which I dropped out
of when during the second year), so the vision had first to be drafted
into dialogue patterns that would allow for my mind to function around the
narrative esthetic of the final vision. I am poet by inclination, and it
is thus that most of my colleagues felt that when I write out events for
scenarios – I tend to rigidly condense the treatment so that even they
would feel rather excluded from the entire creative process and
conception. This pent up inner scourge I have truly come to exorcise as a
film practitioner who is well versed on the collaborative nature of
filmmaking, hence it was necessary to call upon Ms. Neo Masekwameng to
handle the management of this vehicle. We then together with Mr. Desmond
Mthembu, Mr. S’fiso Khanyile and Mr. Sam Mmutle devised a strategy that
would involve a vast number of other under-resourced filmmakers, friends
for cast and other interested entities enticed to partake in what was
termed A COLLECTIVE SHOWREEL. The envisaged show-reel would therefore be
every participants’ personally owned intellectual property that they would
utilize how ever they deem necessary for their careers, be it as portfolio
of works and even as debut art-works for first time directors, producers,
DOP’s and other creative talent involved in the birth and growth of this
concept.

The method behind the madness

What are the common misconceptions entailed in various social expressions,
be they verbal, which could emphatically be labeled as xenophobic? This
was the first question we asked ourselves at the beginning of the initial
phase of concept development. Ideas started rolling on the table, streams
of thought unleashed on the vast landscapes of creativity, and the next
thing after a week; we had seven concretely crafted scenarios which
tempered with various textures of myth surrounding the exegesis of
xenophobia as an ideology. It was therefore essential that we decipher:
How xenophobia permeates and evolves within social norms and moral
constructs, how it affects those ignorant about themselves most, how it
devastates economic goals and aspiration, and how it breeds hatred that
eventually becomes expressed in brutal and aggravating ways on those
deemed as OTHERS.

Ok, this is getting too tautological I realize and too long for an e-mail
about a project I want to shoot like late December and early January, so
perhaps Sam Mmutle my colleague would write a bit about further
developments that we had to inspire within the overall strategy for the
production of this short film. I mean there is a number of us who have
been fully working on the concept, sourcing funds and just doing the
Research and development of the project… I need some of your help… anyhow…
just to get shit out of my head. Just finished cutting a dance piece and
would like to do more…

Let’s keep chatting…

Nommo