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Kizazi Moto: Blazes a Trail in African Storytelling History

Writer's picture: MoeLycaenMoeLycaen

Kizazi Moto: Generation fire is an Anthology series, developed by Triggerfish Animation and Disney+ that presents 10 distinctly African short films from a myriad of African creatives and storytellers from across the continent into a genuine triumph of a show; from its content to its production.


THE PRODUCTION

Alex Abad-Santos, a senior correspondent for Vox.com, in a review  of The Bear (2022) season 2, talks about the nature of talent and creativity and the role of community in nurturing and growing that talent. He says:: 


“Talent is not strictly an individual endeavor. To grow as a person takes a community; a team effort… all these remarkable people need or needed people in their lives to nurture their gifts.”

-Alex Abad-Santos

(Kizazi Moto Executive Producers at the Johannesburg Premiere)


I believe the executive production team on Kizazi Moto - Peter Ramsey (co-director of Into The Spider-Verse), Tendayi Nyeke and Anthony Silverston (Triggerfish)-, not only understood this, but kept it at the forefront of their production ethos, gathering together this unique crew and nurturing their talent and facilitating their growth through each other. Kizazi Moto, not only brought together talented writers and directors, but also a cacophony of studios such as Studio Meala, Hidden Hand, Creatures Animation and so many more.


“Every step along the way it was about making your idea, more of what it was and not taking away from what it was” - Isaac Mogajane (Co-Director of Hatima)



THE SHOW

I had the privilege of first seeing the collection of shorts at a screening Disney+ organised for animation students a few weeks before the show's release, and as amazing as it is watching these at home, if you ever have the opportunity to watch it on a big screen, with a crowd of people… Do it. It is an electrifying experience.


I genuinely believe that from now on, we as an industry will mark time as Before Kizazi and After Kizazi. Sitting in that theatre I could feel it. It was like being a child again, sitting on the carpet in front of the T.V while my mind was blown away. All notions of the world around me and what’s possible, reshaped and changed forever.  


For as long as I can remember, myself and everybody else in or around the local animation industry, have had this common understanding of what the goal is: Us, but in front of the whole world. And that’s what the Kizazi Moto team did. They took Us to a global stage.


(Hatima, Terence Maluleke & Isaac Mogajaane)


“Seeing what the common themes are which are all surprising for us all because we didn’t talk about it. The occurring themes that you see are just a representation of who we are and what we believe as Africans.”

- Isaac Mogajane (Co-Director of Hatima)


Kizazi Moto is more than a collection of shorts. It’s a collection of worlds: from the sprawling landscape of Shofela Coker’s Moremi, which puts a sci-fi twist on the Yoruba tale of Mọremi Ajasoro, to the fast paced world of Soweto-Intergalactic street racing in Simangaliso Sibaya & Malcolm Wope’s Mkhuzi: The Spirit Racer or even the chronicles of adventuring cyborg-cattle herders in Raymond Malinga’s Herderboy


It is clear to see that on this continent, Science Fiction is connected as much to the past as it is to the future, in weaving together themes of community, identity and spirituality into a beautiful artefact of the many ways in which Africans exist and a thesis of what it is that Africa brings to the world. 


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