Wanjiru Kinyanjui: A Lover & Killer of Colour - The Battle of the Sacred Tree - Berlinale Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2023

Wanjiru Kinyanjui
Berlinale
Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2023

Wanjiru Kinyanjui has been fascinated with storytelling since she was a young girl, her imagination visualizing the stories that she read. It is not surprising that her passion brought her to the doorstep of the Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie, the German film school where she could "plunge into a world full of characters and their stories." She had this to say about her experiences there:

The film school was definitely a great opportunity for me because we had no theoretical exams. Our papers were actual films and we could, therefore, experiment on each film we made after every seminar or workshop. Some cinemas in Berlin provided us with free tickets and it was possible for us to watch as many different films as we had time for. I could choose my own subjects, my own format, and the people I would work with. In a way, it was a freeing experience. (Excerpt of interview from Sisters of the Screen by Beti Ellerson)

The Berlinale Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2023 features two of her works that were produced in Germany 

A Lover & Killer of Colour

Federal Republic of Germany, 1988

with Alida Babel

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202314695.html

Description

“I strike with the brush until the white canvas tears.” Wanjiru Kinyanjui’s fiction short about a Black painter in West Berlin was shot on 16mm and draws its power from its atmospheric night scenes and self-confident stream of consciousness.

A young Black woman played by Alida Babel walks through Berlin on her own. It is midnight, her heels click against the steps leading down to the U-Bahn, the train has just left, the empty platform becomes a space of anxiety. Twelve minutes to wait, the voiceover spoken by the director herself complains: “This impatience!” Wanjiru Kinyanjui made A Lover & Killer of Colour (1988) during her studies at the DFFB. This short film miniature revolves around the experience of sexist and racist harassment – and the anger which emerges in response. What can be done with all the aggression that finds no release during such humiliating moments? The film watches as rage is translated into artistic work. The night scenes alternate with footage from the young woman’s studio; she is a painter, and she writes. While she is typing, the voiceover says: “If you do not stop / insulting me / you leeches / I will kill you / in this poem.” Wanjiru Kinyanjui’s directness rejects the sort of sublimation that may have kept the anger contained – even as the wish for reconciliation remains: “Through words, my trust is repaired / on white paper”. (Source: berlinale.de)

The Battle of the Sacred Tree

Germany, 1995

with Margaret Nyacheo, Catherine Kariuki, Roslynn Kimani, Titi Wainaina, Ben Ateku

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202314590.html

Description

Mumbi leaves Nairobi for her ancestral village and gets into a quarrel with a Christian women’s group seeking to eradicate the remains of pre-colonial belief systems. Wanjiru Kinyanjui graduated from the DFFB with this smart comedy shot in Kenya.

Wanjiru had this to say about her film: "Well, this is the film I enjoyed doing most: I was telling a story like any other, albeit on African culture.  It is about a group of Christian women who want to be rid of the "primitive, savage and hateful past" by getting the old, sacred tree chopped down.  They cannot mobilize people to do it, so they decide to do it themselves; but before they strike it on a moonlit night, they are attacked by God's own creatures, the biting safari ants which live and thrive under the tree." (Excerpt of interview from Sisters of the Screen by Beti Ellerson)

Wanjiru Kinyanjui: Black in the Western World - Berlinale Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2021

Wanjiru Kinyanjui

Black in the Western World
Berlinale
Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2021

The Berlinale Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2021 features Wanjiru Kinyanjui's seminal work on identity, belonging and the immigrant experience in Germany, produced by the Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)

Image: Wanjiru Kinyanjui, Black in the Western World © Wanjiru Kinyanjui

"In the German context, I had a problem of identification: I was asked by a co-student why I made all my films on black people. I asked, why shouldn't I? Of course, it is because I was a foreigner and we shared not only problems of non-acceptance, but a common heritage. And also, if I don't, who is going to do it? The only problem with this is that one ends up in a ghetto—people want to keep you in it. I was getting sucked up in a spiral of having to deal with racism in everything I do—radio programs on black people in Germany, lectures on racism in film, teaching children about Africa, writing poems on my surroundings, etc." (Excerpt of interview from Sisters of the Screen by Beti Ellerson)

Wanjiru Kinyanjui

Black in the Western World

Germany 1992, 23min

with Natalie Asfaha, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Paul Ford

At the start of the 1990s, Kenyan DFFB student Kinyanjui grappled with how it felt to be Black in Germany. Racist material from German everyday culture rubs up against conversations with other Black people in Europe. Germany in the early 1990s: Racist caricatures, picture books and advertisements circulate within popular culture and are consumed by white audiences without second thought. In school playgrounds and classrooms, racist games and songs are part of everyday life. Filmmaker Wanjiru Kinyanjui and her interviewee Tsitsi Dangarembga analyse these supposed gags in a cool, detached fashion despite the traumatising violence of the images they contain. These scenes are cross-cut with others showing two men from Malawi and Namibia discussing right-wing extremism in Germany and encouraging Black people in Europe to fight against racism and neocolonialism. The film also examines Eurocentric ignorance about African art or the dark chapter of Germany’s colonial period. Back in the spotlight after an extended slumber in the archives, Black in the Western World uses interviews to deliver a sharp critique of racist as well as capitalist structures. Made while Kinyanjui was studying at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB), the film raises awareness, strengthens and emboldens. (Can Sungu). Source: https://www.arsenal-berlin.de/en/programm-fiktionsbescheinigung/black-in-the-western-world/

Wanjiru had this to say about her film: "Nathalie, another friend of mine from the group, has been collecting images of black people on advertisements and she talked about it in my film, Black in the Western World.  She noted that they are negatively portrayed, too, although this is not obvious at first glance.  Others in the film are Mahoma from Malawi, who was hurt during a racist attack; Felix from Namibia, who was also bashed up on some occasion; and Tsitsi Dangarembga from Zimbabwe, who was at that time busy trying to understand life as a black woman in Germany. This film has been shown at community centers in Germany where Germans would get very upset about Africans summarizing their points of view.  They would be angry with me! Well, that is their own point of view." (Excerpt of interview from Sisters of the Screen by Beti Ellerson)

Wanjiru Kinyanjui: A Portrait

Wanjiru Kinyanjui (Photo credit)

Wanjiru Kinyanjui has been fascinated with storytelling since she was a young girl, her imagination visualizing the stories that she read. It is not surprising that her passion brought her to the doorstep of the Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie, the German film school where she could "plunge into a world full of characters and their stories." She had this to say about her experiences there:

The film school was definitely a great opportunity for me because we had no theoretical exams.  Our papers were actual films and we could, therefore, experiment on each film we made after every seminar or workshop.  Some cinemas in Berlin provided us with free tickets and it was possible for us to watch as many different films as we had time for.  I could choose my own subjects, my own format, and the people I would work with.  In a way, it was a freeing experience. 

Back in Kenya, though having to adjust to a very different environment with fewer technical and professional structures, in the long run she finds it to be much more pleasant and open and the people friendlier and easier to get along with. Above all, she is contributing to the development of a Kenyan film culture.

Wanjiru is actively involved in the fledgling Riverwood--the Kenyan version of the Nollywood phenomenon. Within it she can participate in filmmaking experiences with which people can identify, reflecting the life of everyday Kenyans at the same time providing entertainment. When asked about her reflections on African cinema she stated:

I like films which connect more to us today or at least depict how things have changed and why... films which embrace the whole character of Africans...films which can make us laugh, which appeal to our emotions and which show us who we are...African Cinema should also produce films which not only portray life as it is, but have characters whose world is accessible to us today. Villages are nice romantic places, but there are cities in Africa too.  There are the high and mighty who can be subjects of satirical critique. There are career women and brilliant children. There are normal issues of life. 

Wanjiru sees in Riverwood the potential to make Kenyan experiences accessible to Kenyan audiences. Moreover, her work as a film instructor also contributes to the film culture of Kenya. She finds teaching at Kenyatta University to be both a challenge and a blessing. It is a challenge because there are limited resources: lack of films to teach, technical books, a film library. In addition, there is the widely-held view that filmmakers are technicians rather than artists. The blessing is the pleasure of working with students, to work towards the demystification of film. Several of her students participated as volunteers at the Kenya International Film Festival and the Future Filmmakers Workshop which she also participated as co-ordinator.

Her reflections on African women and cinema:

Strong images would give her more confidence to stop believing that she needs to be like this or like that, depending on societal beliefs and notions.  I like her image when she is shown to be of an independent mind, when she is not a passive being who is too busy following false tracks laid down for her by others who are more interested in "keeping her in her place."  One should give her the opportunity to define where her place is! And cinema, because it allows us to travel in a projected world of the possible, not necessarily the present reality, is a great opportunity!

*Quotes from interview with Wanjiru Kinyanjui by Beti Ellerson (Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film Video and Television).

LINKS

Kenyatta University

Sisters of the Screen

Future Filmmakers Workshop

Disrupting Binary Divisions: Representation of Identity in Saikati and Battle of the Sacred Tree