Bubblegum Club

Tag: online platform

  • AFROPUNK // A culturally significant global movement

    AFROPUNK. A movement that has multiple branches, from its online platform to the festival to a series of collaborative projects. A seed was planted 13 years ago in the mind of Matthew Morgan, the co-founder of AFROPUNK, when the screening of the documentary Afro-punk gathered an intimate group of black kids who shared an interest in punk rock culture. Reflecting on this moment Morgan expressed, “The large portion of them wanted to exist in a space that catered for their music choices and their lifestyle choices but with other black people, which was not available to them for the most part.” The AFROPUNK identity and what it stands for has been translated into a reach of 40 million a week in digital space, and an incredible following of its festival and connected events.

    Describing the AFROPUNK audience as global, African and diasporic, Morgan recognizes that their audience is shifting every day. This shifting audience is what allows AFROPUNK to be relevant in Brooklyn, Atlanta, London, Paris, and now Johannesburg. However, the core of the movement never changes – to be a platform for people of colour to see more alternative versions of themselves, and to celebrate black excellence. This is a sentiment that is shared in South Africa and across the globe more generally, which can be seen through social media posts that embrace a similar thinking to the founding pillars of AFROPUNK. The desire to promote and make political and physical space for alternative black culture has resulted in AFROPUNK being a welcomed breath of fresh air in the digital and festival spheres.

    This connects with the evolving nature of Johannesburg and the people who inhabit it. From kids who are fresh out of high school moshing at a tightly packed hip hop party, to those who reject western beauty standards by embracing their natural hair, to those who are calling for free, decolonised education. The kinetic energy that is fostered through the networking and collaboration related to AFROPUNK is what provides connection for people of colour. Morgan expressed that it is important for significance of this connection to be acknowledged, and the festival is a way in which this connection can manifest physically. Allowing a moment of self-expression among people of colour who might share similar experiences, or who have to navigate the world in a similar way. It allows for an interrogation of that experience, as well as a moment to exhale.

    No Sexism, No Racism, No Ableism, No Ageism, No Homophobia, No Fatphobia, No Transphobia and No Hatefulness. These slogans have become tied to the AFROPUNK identity and present an intersectional understanding of identity politics. They also come from the aspiration for AFROPUNK to create a sense of coming together, and a practicing ground for leaving prejudice behind.

    Reflecting on his visits to Johannesburg that led up to the festival being hosted in the city, Morgan expressed that he “spent significant amounts of time on every visit, and feel[s] the music, the fashion, the style, the politics, are incredible, and if we can be part of helping to share that and then bring people in, that again shares, and connects the diaspora in a more meaningful way.”

    The festival will be on 30-31 December at Constitution Hill. Tickets available at http://afropunkfest.com/johannesburg/

  • Girls in Film // a network for womxn in the film industry

    Nikola Vasakova is the founder of Girl in Film (GiF). Working as a video producer in London, she knew a lot of women who worked in film in different positions but they all did not know each other. Nikola expressed that it can be quite isolating being a womxn in the film industry, so she decided to put together an evening where all of her girl friends in film could get to know each other. The response to this event was an indication of how necessary it is for womxn to support one another through their various positions in the industry. “Straight from the start it turned out this was something that people were really into and lot more people turned up than I expected. It grew from a small gathering of friends to a 200+ guest list of women from the film industry in all capacities,” Nikola explained. With this enthusiastic response, GiF has grown and continues to articulate its core objectives – to connect, champion and support a new generation of female-identifying filmmakers through their events and online platform.

    Connected to this is Nikola’s advocacy for finding new ways for visual storytelling from the point of view of the female gaze. “We need stories with the ‘female gaze’ as much as with female sensitivity to characters, their stories, the message that they or the directors want to convey. There’s a lot that’s missing in current film landscape, stories that have for a long time been missing in our discourse whether those they touch on human rights, sexuality or identity and I find this is what interests female directors a lot at the moment, so I’m excited to be giving platform to those voices,” Nikola expresses.

    Having hosted events in London, Prague and New York, GiF will be coming to Johannesburg on the 18th of December. In its first GiF event in South Africa,  Zandi Tisani, Bee Diamondhead, Sihle Hlophe, and Phatstoki, will dissect the topic of young womxn spaces, race & politics in the South African film and creative industry.

    I had an interview with Nikola to find out more about GiF and the event in Johannesburg.

    Who is part of the GiF team and what is everyone’s creative background?

    Nikola – I’m the founder, producer and curator of our online output. I’m mostly running GiF in UK on my own but I’m surrounded by incredible women that help me on the way – like Julie Machin who is producing our Jozi event. There’s Julie Zackova who is running GiF in Prague. There’s also a string of freelance writers, spearheaded by amazing Leah Abraham that has contributed many articles to our website. Jaqueline Awuku and Dora Cohnen who researched so much content for the site. Many other people on the way that helped with events, writing, connecting etc, big shout out to Vanessa Dos Santos in US too! I’m connecting with people in NYC to make our event there a regular occurrence.

    How has GiF evolved since it first started?

    I’m still in awe that from a small idea that started as a friends gathering in 2016 we have now visited NYC, Prague where we now have a solid branch and have come to South Africa! That’s huge for me, I really never dreamt things would happen so quickly and I’m so happy and humbled that women around the world are responding so positively. I’m really excited for the future – I have big plans to 2018 but I don’t want to get ahead of myself yet.

    Why do you think it is important for GiF to have an online presence in addition to the events you host?

    Events are great way to connect with people IRL instead of just URL – however, not everyone lives in large cities – it’s important to represent voices in different parts of country or different countries and give them platform too – which is why I started the online video platform.

    It appears that GiF is based on an intersectional foundation. Could you please share more about this?

    GiF has always been intersectional largely due to the community it grew out of. As an immigrant WOC in London, surrounded by other WOC, representation of racial and social diversity was never a question for me. Initial name ‘Girls in Film’ was mainly penned as I liked that it spelled out ‘GiF’ which is a nod to digital culture that we are all experiencing at the moment – rather than routed in the traditional film & TV, GiF mainly represents new generation of filmmakers who’s films are often found online than on terrestrial channels. However, by having ‘girls’ in name doesn’t mean we are ageists or exclusive of non binary, female-identified people. So yes, intersectionality is very important for us to communicate.

    Could you share more about the kinds of events you have hosted in London, Prague and New York?

    We have hosted screenings, workshops and panel talks with leading figures in the industry.

    What influenced your decision to come to Johannesburg this year?

    Julie Machin, who is part of our GiF family has been working in Jozi on and off over the years and during her last visit, she decided it would be great to set up GiF event as there are so many great creative womxn doing interesting stuff. Conversation about representation in the industry are as valid here as they are everywhere else and Julie spent some time talking to creatives in Johannesburg to make sure this event is their own and they can decide what they feel is important to talk about.

    How did you decide which films would be screened on the 18th?

    Curating films for GiF always lies in finding the talented creative voices and stories that are relevant to the audience in each territory. Johannesburg will probably be different to Prague but that’s the exciting part. However, the quality of filmmaking stays the same throughout all our curation. We are selecting films from the speakers but we’ve also chose to open the event with Femme in Public from Jabu Nadia Newman. She’s in Cape Town so a bit of her will be with us and we feel her film will also be a great catalyst to open the discussion about the non-binary representation on and in films.

    How did you decide who will be part of the panel discussion on the 18th?

    As we are talking about race, we wanted to make sure that women of colour are navigating this discussion and we were lucky to be able to secure these amazing womxn (Zandi Tisani, Bee Diamondhead, Sihle Hlophe, Phatstoki, Palesa Shongwe) to come and share their knowledge and opinions on stage. We also wanted to make sure we bring together highly creative minds and a great representation of diverse voices by their style and industry specificities. Phatstoki is the new generation. Bee is highly successful and navigating in between creative and commercials projects. Zandi is making moves with her TV show in development and her long feature project. Sihle has so much experience and her new film is touring festivals now, and being able to have Palesa Shongwe as the host will bring a lot of knowledge in the discussions.

    What are you hoping will be the outcome of GiF coming to Johannesburg?

    We hope people leave inspired and that we inject some self confidence in womxn that want to pursue career in creative and film industry. And also hope that this is the first in many more to come!

    The event will take place on 18 December at The Bioscope in Maboneng from 18h45.