Hawa Essuman and the Soul Boy Project

Soul Boy, written by Kenyan author Billy Kahora, evolved from a film workshop initiated by the German association One Fine Day with filmmaker Tom Tykwer. Shortly into the film production, Ghanaian-Kenyan Hawa Essuman undertook directorship with Tykwer as her mentor. The film Soul Boy is the result of this mentorship and collaboration.

Following are three two clips: the Soul Boy trailer, a discussion with Hawa Essuman and Tom Tykwer, and an interview with Hawa Essuman at the Göteborg International Film Festival, 2010.

SYNOPSIS

Nairobi, Kenya. 14 year-old Abila lives with his parents in Kibera, one of the largest slums in East Africa. One morning the teenager discovers his father ill and delirious. Someone has stolen his soul, mumbles the father as he sits huddled in a corner. Abila is shocked and confused but wants to help his father and goes in search of a suitable cure.Supported by his friend Shiku who is the same age as him, he learns that his father has gambled his soul away in the company of a spiritual woman.

The teenager doesn’t want to believe it and sets about looking for the witch. When he finally discovers her in the darkest corner of the ghetto, she gives him seven challenging tasks to save his father’s lost soul. Abila embarks on an adventurous journey which leads him right through the microcosm of his home town.

Soul Boy (2009) by Hawa Essuman

KIBERA

SOUL BOY is set in Kibera, one of the largest slums in the African continent, in the middle of Nairobi, Kenya. Kibera is a chaotic slum-city built out of temporary housing and is infamous for its high level of squalor. Children have to grow up quickly here as they learn to fend for themselves. Suspicion and fear still lingers as the Luo and Kikuyu communities recover from the 2007/2008 post election violence which saw neighbour turn on neighbour. Despite all of this the cohesion and the dignity of the people who live here is remarkable. Alongside the day to day tension, the social environment is dominated by a universal solidarity and common desire to maintain a working community.

Hawa Essuman and Tom Tykwer during
the Göteborg International Film Festival 2010

THE PROJECT

In September 2008 Marie Steinmann and Tom Tykwer teamed up with Ginger and Guy Wilson (from the Nairobi based production company Ginger Ink) to set up a project which would build on the work of their One Fine Day association and the British NGO partnership Anno’s Africa – both of which have specialised in developing creative opportunities for those working in developing countries.

Operating within the framework of a manageable budget, the project was intended to develop a film workshop in Nairobi. Led by Tom Tykwer, a small team of professional filmmakers would create a feature film in Kibera by working together with a much larger crew of young local apprentices. The first goal was to integrate Nairobi’s residents, especially the slum inhabitants, those who were curious and wanted to learn the practical skills offeature film making, so that they could learn technical skills which would create job prospects and leave inspiration in the communities.

The project quickly developed its own dynamic energy. The Kenyan author Billy Kahora outlined the idea for a film, which translated the secrets and myths of this multilayered social microcosm into a modern, inspiring fairytale-like story: Soul Boy. The young Ghanaian-Kenyan filmmaker Hawa Essuman (born in 1980) took over the directing reigns. Soul Boy is her film debut, having worked successfully in local theatre. In the meantime she is developing her second feature film, which is set on the coast of Kenya. Following an intensive period of research in Kibera the screenplay took approximately six weeks to complete. Casting the film was spread out across the whole city: with the support of Anno’s Africa, the production searched for their young lead actors in Kibera’s slums, schools and alleyways. One week of pre-production was all that remained to prepare for the 13-day shoot. Soul Boy was finally shot between 17 November and 1 December 2008.

Hawa Essuman

Ghanaian-Kenyan filmmaker Hawa Essuman's foray into the moving image started as a trainee director for the television series Makutano Junction, by the second season she was the assistant director. She quickly gained the confidence and experience to venture into film and in 2009 completed Lift and Selfish.  Hawa directed Soul Boy under the tutelage of German director Tom Tykwer who initiated the film workshop from which the film evolved. 

During an interview at the Göteborg International Film Festival's world premiere of Soul Boy, she reflected on her source of inspiration and how film contributes to making the world a better place.

Below is a transcription of excerpts of the interview by Neta Norrmo of Aveny Production.

Humans [are my biggest source of inspiration]. I love human interaction and human relationships and how we absorb stories, conversations. How we look to better ourselves. I really enjoy that and how we question ourselves. I like the questioning and the curiosity of the human mind...

Film shows us who we are at that time and we are constantly changing and constantly moving forward. The film that I make today will inform us as to who we were then. It is a 3D snapshot of who it is we were at that time. And the film that's made after that will show us who we are then. That is what it is for. It is very informative. It's like any other piece of art in that respect. That you get to play over and over...

I've always been a fan of magical realism stories so to have the opportunity to direct a film that was set in that context was very exciting for me...

Soul Boy (2009) by Hawa Essuman

Links

Soul Boy Website

Announcing the Meeting of African Women Filmmakers at Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, South Africa

From 1-4 September 2010 two events at the Goethe-Institut will focus on professional women in the African film industry.

In Arts Work: Meeting of African women filmmakers from 1-3 September 2010 (on invitation only), 25 women filmmakers from sub-Saharan Africa will explore chances and challenges for women in the film world and steps to be taken to strengthen their voices.

During an open forum on 4 September, the public is invited to join the discussion at the Goethe-Institut from 10-1pm. The events take part in conjunction with the Women of the Sun Film Festival, the First African Women Film Festival to take place in South Africa.

"The film industry is a very challenging sector where women are still underrepresented worldwide," the filmmaker Marie Ka from Senegal wrote. The meeting of the filmmakers marks the beginning of a series of platforms, with the objective to improve the intra-African exchanges and professional situation of women artists and women working in the cultural sector titled "Arts Work". The project is interested in the situation of female artists, their limitations and possibilities, their access to resources, their acknowledgement or lack thereof - in brief: the gendered aspects of making or breaking.

For the first women's platform in September, the Goethe-Institut has invited successful filmmakers who contribute actively to change the working patterns in their field and in their country. Their biographies and their experiences, their goals and ideas are the starting point of the two-day meeting, which also represents the beginning of joint activities. Among the speakers e.g. the known Fanta Regina Nacro director and producer, culture scholars and filmmakers Christina von Braun and Beti Ellerson, director of the Center for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema. The meeting was developed together with the filmmaker and film curator Dorothee Wenner.

Arts Work: Open Forum

Saturday, 4 September 2010: 10am to 1pm (public)

To Screen and Be Seen - Female Perspectives on Filmmaking in Africa
Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, 119 Jan Smuts Avenue

The audiovisual industries on the African continent are undergoing dramatic changes. The digital revolution has led to the dawn of a new filmmaking era that opens up opportunities for filmmaking in Africa. Increased African audiences for films that are screened on a variety of platforms, mean more filmmakers, including women, will enter the industry in the coming years.

What are the perspectives and challenges for women in this traditionally male dominated field? What lessons can be learned from experienced women of the craft? What impact will an increased numbers of women behind the camera and in decision making positions have on films yet to be made? What stories shall be told and how? Will choices of genre and aesthetics be affected? Finally, how are African women filmmakers claiming their space and with what vision?

These will be some of the discussion points during the open forum at the Goethe-Institut. This public forum will be following a two day meeting of 25 African women filmmakers and guests with the objective to strengthen the intra-African exchanges and presence of women filmmakers on the continent.

In partnership with the Women of the Sun Film Festival, and with so many important voices from the African film industry present, we want to use the occasion to engage in an open discussion about operating as a woman in the film industry.

The forum participants come from all over sub-Saharan Africa. The forum will be moderated by the filmmaker and programmer of the Berlinale Dorothee Wenner and film curator June Givanni.

Source: FilmContact.com

Women of the Sun Making HERstory

WOMEN OF THE SUN, in conjunction with the Goethe Institut, the Gauteng Film Commission (GFC) and the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC), are putting African women filmmakers on the map with the launch of a seven day film festival to celebrate African Women Filmmakers, in Johannesburg (2nd – 9th September). The Women Of the Sun Film Festival (WoS Film Festival) will be the First African Women Film Festival to take place in South Africa, featuring 25 films by 23 talented women filmmakers from 15 African Countries with 15 of the filmmakers present at the screenings.

The festival offers a unique opportunity to see great films and to meet the exceptional women behind them. It’s open to all – and there’s something for everyone. The selection will showcase some of the best examples of the filmmaking craft, crossing a diverse range of genres and styles, from family drama to social justice documentaries to experimental films. 


Guests include Jyoti Mistry with her film The Bull on the Roof (South Africa), from the Sudan Taghreed Elsanhouri Mother Unknown and All About Darfur, from Kenya Hawa Essuman’s and her latest film festival sensation Soul Boy, produced by acclaimed German director Tom Tywker (Run Lola Run/Perfume). Other guests are Burkina Faso’s Fanta Nacro (Night of Truth), highly acclaimed Algerian director Djamila Sahraoui (Barakat!), Zimbabwe’s award winning novelist and film director, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and the first Angolan woman to ever make a feature film, Maria Joao Ganga (Hollow City).


This is a festival that will challenge the notion that only certain people make films and that only certain places/countries have a film industry. It will open our eyes and ears to distinct female voices from far flung places across the continent and highlight emerging industry and talent.

“The time is ripe to change the widely held belief that filmmaking is a male domain,” says Eve Rantseli, Director of Women of the Sun. “Women in film have much to say and are saying it with unique vision and flair. The launch of this annual women’s film festival will be the start of getting women filmmakers and their works part of the mainstream.”


The Women of the Sun Film Festival is running alongside the African Women Filmmaker’s Forum. Hosted by the Goethe Institute, the forum gathers a delegation of 25 women filmmakers of all levels of experience from sub-Saharan Africa, the USA and Germany to network with and gain inspiration from colleagues. The Forum is a platform for Africa women filmmakers to assess the situation and develop strategies to strengthen their presence in the industry. It’s all about creating inspiration and supporting women in the industry to make more films, and once films are made, getting work widely distributed to audiences. Invited participants include world-renowned women filmmakers and festival programmers, distributors and local and international directors, producers and academics.

The festival’s red carpet launch will take place at Arts on Main on the evening of the 2nd and will be attended by some of the biggest names associated with women and film. Among them are renowned professor of media, culture and gender theory, Dr. Christina von Braun (Germany), Berlinale Programme Director, filmmaker and journalist Dorothee Wenner and Director of New York based distribution company, Women Make Movies, Debra Zimmerman.

• The festival runs from Friday 3rd September to Thursday 9th September at the Bioscope Cinema on Fox Street.
• Opening Night Thursday the 2nd at Arts on Main (RSVP crucial).
• The Forum takes place from 1st to 4th September at the Goethe Institute. Day 4 is open to members of the public (all filmmakers).

Eve Rantseli
(Executive Officer of Women of the Sun)

Maria João Ganga's Hollow City

Notes on the filmmaker's intentions

The film looks at the time that has passed between two different periods: the years of the revolutionary epoch and the period of disruption which emerged in the 80s.

We are confronted with the irreparable breakdown of a dream.

The perspectives and realities of these two periods are symbolized by the parallel drawn between the lives of two children Ngunga and N'dala. Ngunga is the symbolic hero of the revolutionary phase. A brave child who is conscious of the need to change the world and the consciousness of adults.

Ngunga, the little fighter, has grown in each of us, as an example to follow. Were we not, this "New Person" that he was constructing?

In the late 80s, N'Dala is an orphan and a refugee of war. He travels in a world devoid of prospects, living at the fast and reckless pace of survival.

N'Dala's story is fairly common in the everyday life of Angola and it would be too easy to fall into the sensationalism of war. Our good conscience, eased, will survive the gunshots, but N'Dala will not.

As an Angolan woman I saw the day-to-day turbulence of Luanda, which, despite the recently-established peace, will continue to see for years to come, many children in its streets. Source: http://www.commeaucinema.com/notes-de-prod/na-cidade-vazia,48990. Page no longer available. (Translated from French)

Synopsis

Set in the aftermath of the Angolan revolution and the devastating results, this film chronicles the impact on even the most innocent. Orphaned at age 11, Ndala arrives in Luanda on a military transport plane filled with other children in the same situation. During the confusion of arrival, he runs away and begins his journey through the unfamiliar and un-welcoming city. Ndala meets Z, an older boy who shares the epic story of a young warrior. Z and his friends, who drift amongst the Luanda homeless, fascinate Ndala and he is tragically pulled into their existence of survival. Maria Joo Ganga presents contrasting visual styles that reflect Ndalas journey. His discovery of the seaside is bathed in brilliant blues and yellows reflecting the purity of sea and sky, in contrast with his connection to Z, bringing him into a clandestine world of interiors with dilapidated apartments and smoky, ramshackle bars redolent of perpetual night.

Biography

Maria João Ganga was born in Huambo, Angola and studied filmmaking at L’école Superieure Libre d’etudes Cinematographiques (ESEC) in Paris. She has served as an assistant director on several documentaries, including Rostov-Luanda by Abderrahmane Sissako, and has also written and directed for theatre. Hollow City is her first feature film.

(Image: CineAfrica)

Updated: December 2022

Emem Isong's Contribution to Nigerian Cinema

Emem Isong is among an increasingly long list of women who are making important contributions to the burgeoning movie-making industry in Nigeria. Nollywooduncut.com features her in an interview published on 14 March 2010. READ THE INTERVIEW: EMEM ISONG THE STORY BEHIND THE GLORY

In addition to her role as director and producer, Emen Isong wears the additional hat of director of the acting school, Royal Arts Academy. Journalist Azuh Amatus of Nigerian Best Forum, devotes an article to the school opening:

After several years of planning, researching and fine-tuning arrangements, leading female producer in Nollywood, Emem Isong, has finally opened her long-awaited acting school. Known as Royal Arts Academy, the Surulere-Lagos-based institute, according to Isong, will seek to continually provide education through the arts.

It is also a training academy that offers courses on various aspects of the film industry with emphasis on script writing, acting, directing, dance and children theatre. Speaking on her reasons for establishing the academy, Isong argued that is has become necessary to improve and develop skills in order to meet the international standards of film making. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

Emen Isong's films include Guilty Pleasures and Uyai which she produced, and directed with Desmond Elliot.

Guilty Pleasures (2009)

Uyai (2008)