Future Africa
Story Posted: 5 October 2022
Categories: Showcase
In 2021, Meta and narrative change organisation Africa No Filter, announced a partnership to launch the Future Africa: Telling Stories, Building Worlds program, aimed at boosting the use of Virtual Reality in African storytelling. Delivered in collaboration with Electric South and Imisi 3D, the selected artists received ongoing mentorship and production support to create their projects, which explore a range of subjects including African heritage, memory and imagination, masculinity, spirituality and more.
About the Works:
Dylan Valley is an award winning filmmaker and educator who sees film as a tool for social change. His virtual reality/360 documentary Azibuye – The Occupation premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2020. Dylan is presenting No Place But Here, a 360 documentary about a precarious housing occupation in an unused Cape Town public hospital. More info on this work.
Malik Afegbua is a versatile creative who is passionate about telling stories, regardless of what medium those stories are being told in. His latest Netflix film Made By Design is an example of how he communicates human emotions using visual storytelling. Malik is presenting Moving Between, a virtual experience of the Kofar Mata dye pit, a cultural and historical site in Kano, Nigeria, where fabrics are dyed using resist indigo tie and dye techniques. More info on this work.
Michelle Ang’awa is an introverted lover of stories who has been playing with cameras since the age of 14. She assisted in developing Exposition Media, a digital show that curates courageous conversations among the youth in Kenya. Michelle is presenting Thao: 1000 Shillings in Nairobi, a story that embarks on a specialised surveillance journey of an ordinary yet extraordinary Nairobian boda boda rider. More info on this work.
Nirma Madhoo has been based in Durban, South Africa from 1998. As a fashion filmmaker and XR creator, she also has a teaching practice and is currently a PhD candidate researching emerging technologies for digital fashion praxis. Nirma is presenting 444.2, the distance in light years to isiLimela (later named the Pleiades Constellation) and looks at African cultures as cultures of technology. More info on this work.
Pierre-Christophe Gam is the lead artist of Cameroonian/Chadian heritage. He sees his practice as a continuation of the great tradition of pre-colonial West African griots: the guardians of the memory of the community, which they passed on through initiation songs. Pierre presents Toguna World, an AR/VR Art installation that serves as a forum for cross-cultural conversation on possible futures. More info on this work.
Xabiso Vili is a multi-award-winning performer, writer, new media artist, producer and social activist. One of South Africa’s top poets, his writings help him explore his inner world to be able to relate to the outer world. Xabiso is presenting Black Boi Meets Boogeyman, a 360° multiple choice poetic theatre performance and visual album. More info on this work.
