Bubblegum Club

Tag: web series

  • Queer Vernaculars, Visual Narratives

    “It is all about using our own words and our own agency to speak for ourselves in a world that either tries to speak for us, speak at us, or ignore us entirely.”

    Iranti-org is an organisation founded by Jabulani Pereira and Neo Musangi as a response to the lack of documentation of hate crimes against LGBTIQ+ persons. In addition to this, they realised that many queer African narratives were told by non-queer non-Africans. Beginning with their documentation of the brutal murder of Thapelo Makutle in Kuruman in 2012, Iranti-org has grown into a platform that documents various milestones for the Lesbian, Transgender and Intersex communities across Africa.

    “We have had an overwhelmingly positive response from our allies and the LTI (Lesbian, Trans, Intersex) communities. I think in part due to the work we do to ensure that LTI stories are recorded rather than erased and forgotten, and in part due to our increasingly direct advocacy with business, government and the networking, training and knowledge-sharing events that we either co-ordinate or participate in,” states Iranti-org Writer and Social Media Officer, Kellyn Botha.

    Still from ‘I RISE’

    Their organizational aims are solidified in their slogan “Queer Vernaculars Visual Narratives”. The potency of this slogan comes when one unpacks each words. The use of ‘queer’ connects to a global remediation of the word, which in the past has been used in a derogatory context and as a form of othering people from the LGBTIQ+ community. This word has been reappropriated to form part of the queer communities own vernacular as an expression of pride and defiance.  It again emphasizes the importance of the community using its own voice in a world that consistently tries to speak for or erase LGBTIQ+ people and their experiences. Most of the stories Iranti-org shares are in some form of visual medium.

    “Iranti means ‘memory’ in Yoruba after all, and thus it is our job to record what happens in the region, both horrific and inspiring, to ensure that our history as a community is not lost.”

    With their desire to focus on the necessity for LGBTIQ+ people to speak for themselves, Iranti-org started a web series in December, having released two videos so far. The significance of this web series comes across through Botha’s statement that “it allows queer Africans to create content directed at queer Africans, without a benevolent ‘cishet’ saviour guiding the way.” In 2016 Iranti-org hosted a script-writing workshop with the then newly formed Africa Queer Media Makers’ Network. With the workshop facilitator Makgano Mamabolo, the Iranti-org team chose and refined stories that would feature as part of the web series. “We feel that the medium of telling these stories, that of using fiction and more artistic techniques than one might see in our documentation work, was an experiment on our part and one that we feel paid off.” The first two web series episodes are titled ‘Bruise’ and ‘I Rise’ – stories that Botha describes as possessing messages that transcend geographic location.

    Check out the two episodes below. Follow Iranti-org on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter for their next episode.

    ‘I RISE’ sees writer Nigel Patel express emotions and thoughts on gender, cisnormativity and violence.

    ‘Bruise’, the web series’ first episode, looks into the mind of Busi, a non-binary trans person struggling with agoraphobia – the fear of wide-open spaces.

  • Where Art Thou – letting art be your guide

    In a Bangkok gallery filled with sinister wooden carvings of warped body parts, punctuated with black grains of rice, Terhys Persad found out about the struggles the Thai farmers. No guidebook had included this information and even the tour guides did not briefly mention the tragic commercialisation of rice farming. Instead it was in galleries and the contemporary art that Terhys feasted on that she was able to learn about the stories of the people of each foreign land she visited.

    The knowledge she gained from that Bangkok gallery and many other galleries she visited while fulfilling her dream of travelling the world inspired her to create a web series, Where Art Thou, that answers the questions about a country through art.

    After a year and a half of travelling, Terhys returned to her home in America and registered herself for film classes. Here she learned how to create, direct and produce a show. Next stop, South Africa to shoot the first season of the series.

    However, this was not the typical Western travel show that focuses on the South African wine route or Nelson Mandela. Terhys’ goal was to “introduce outsiders to a part of a country’s culture that doesn’t feed into Western stereotypes.”

    So even in the South African art scene, Terhys focused on artists that “do not get much attention in traditional art spaces”. She specifically sought out “women and gender non-conforming people, people of colour and queer people”. Even all of the crew that Terhys hired were South African people of colour and most of them were women.

    The six episode season features artists that manifest the theme of that episode in their work.

    Episode one is about conflict and coexistence and features internationally known contemporary artist and practicing traditional healer, Buhlebezwe Siwani.

    Episode two’s theme is defiance and the artists in this episode, Rendani Nemakhavhani and Kgomotso Neto Tleane, “rebrand Black hood life with a camera and a soap opera” through cinematic photography series, The Honey.

    Under the theme commitment, episode three features Molotov Cocktails the resistance mechanisms of an artist and her family’s activism that has continued for generations.

    Artists Rory Emmet and Thania Petersen feature in episode four, which explores the “rediscovering identity and royal heritage after hundreds of years of erasure” under the theme pride.

    Episode five’s theme is ownership and discusses the many ways that land has been and continues to be a contentious issue in South Africa.

    Lastly, episode six features “F**k White People” artist, Dean Hutton and the idea of “dismantling white supremacy” under the theme bravery.

    Through the interviews of artists whose work introduces specific parts of South African culture, society or history, Terhys captures authentic South African stories and “dope shit that doesn’t repeat the well worn narratives of the nation”.

    Terhys is currently fundraising and developing season two of Where Art Thou, which will be in Mexico. But for now, the first episode of season one will be released later this month and every month after an episode will be released.

    Stay tuned to the Where Art Thou YouTube channel and check out Where Art Thou’s Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram for behind the scenes videos, travel tip.

  • The Foxy Five – Women forging intersectional footholds

    Staccato stabs erupt between creviced creases of the mountainous form. Backlit by blue skies, institutional columns stem forth. Symmetrical colonial stone is foregrounded by five womxn. The iconic campus of tertiary education was the site of recent student protests – a rupturing ripple that will resist all forms of erasure. The figures stand armed, in formation. Assault rifles extend from arms held high. Donned in a uniform of 70’s chic – highwaisted trousers and cropped shirts. These are The Foxy Five. A living legacy.

    Jabu Nadia Newman is redefining the terrain of identity politics in the South African context. As born-free filmmaker and founder of the The Foxy Five she has created a web series that fictions the narrative of five womxn who stand at a metaphorical crossroad – the ideological intersection between race, gender, class, sexuality and other axes of power and oppression.

    She says, “I’m interested in showing a new view of what it means to be an African, while being open to the fact that I’m still figuring it out for myself” In this way, the discourse around identity politics is emanating internally – dismantling prescriptive external boundaries.

    In depicting the lived experiences of five womxn – expressed visually through Womxn We, Blaq Beauty, Unity Bond, Femme Fatal and Prolly Plebs – Newman reclaims the space of representation – a crucial element in redefining and exploring nuanced conceptions of identity. Shifted modes of power are used in this Post-Colonial context to reimagine an alternative to a white-washed historical narrative.

    Using the rhetoric of intersectionality and “Africa for Africans” The Foxy Five march on. A powerful stance is struck; their gaze meets you head on. An assurance in position is executed with military precision. You are left only to stare down a barrel of a gun.

    “This time we’re gonna make sure we’re the ones running the shots”

    Watch episode 1 of The Foxy Five below.

    1 J.Hunkin. (2016) Janu Nadia Newman: Intersectionality with a side of pop culture. Between 10&5 http://10and5.com/2016/06/16/jabu-nadia-newman-intersectionality-with-a-side-of-pop-culture/