Ng’endo Mukii – Short Films: Yellow Fever, Kitwana’s Journey, and Kesho Pia Ni Siku Stories In Place
Livestream Q&A with the Director: Wednesday, April 27 at 7:30pm EST
(All films dir Ng’endo Mukii: 2012, Kenya/UK, 7 min; 2019, Kenya, 6 min; 2021, Kenya, 10 min )
Guests: Ng’endo Mukii (filmmaker)
Introduced by: TreaAndrea Russworm, UMass Amherst
Yellow Fever
I am interested in the concept of skin and race, and what they imply; in the ideas and theories sown into our flesh that change with the arc of time. The idea of beauty has become globalized, creating homogenous aspirations, and distorting people’s self-image across the planet. In my film, I focus on African women’s self-image, through memories and interviews; using mixed media to describe this almost schizophrenic self-visualization that I and many others have grown up with. (Mukii)
Kitwana’s Journey
“This is the story of a boy named Kitwana,
A boy who laughed and played,
and went to school,
and did all the things that children do.
One day Kitwana’s life would change and not for the better,
This, however, nobody knew.” (Mukii)
Kesho Pia Ni Siku Stories In Place
Ng’endo Mukii further exposes the patriarchy engrained in our society with her film documentary titled ‘Kesho Pia Ni Siku’, which chronicles a Black-owned small business called Kanyoko Fabrics & Designs, run by Njeri Mereka, her mother. Kesho Pia Ni Siku, which means Tomorrow Is Another Day’ in Kiswahili, is part of the film Stories In Place, a collection of stories that chronicle small businesses as they navigate a world in flux. (WaAfrika Online and Okay Africa)
Watch and Participate
Introduction by TreaAndrea Russworm
Film Screening
Available through the festival platform Sparq starting February 25!
Introduction by TreaAndrea Russworm
Live Conversation and Q&A with Filmmaker
via Facebook or YouTube
(Wed, April 27 at 7:30pm EST)
All events are free and open to the public.
Access Sparq with your Gmail and Apple ID, or UMass Amherst email address.
About the Filmmaker
Ng’endo Mukii
Ng’endo Mukii is an award-winning film director most well known for ‘Yellow Fever,’ her documentary-animation exploring Western influences on African women’s ideals of beauty. At the prestigious Design Indaba conference she presented her talk, ‘Film Taxidermy and Re-Animation,’ proposing the use of animation as a means of rehumanising the ‘indigenous’ image; a people whose ‘real’ image is burdened with stereotypes of being the ‘Other.’ Ng’endo is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and holds a Master of Arts in Animation from the Royal College of Art. She is an alumni of the beautiful Berlinale Talents, the distinguished Urucu Media REALNESS Screenwriter’s Residency, and the incredible Goethe Institute Bahia Vila Sul artists’ residency. She is a writer on Netflix’s Mama K’s Team 4 series, and is one of 10 directors selected for the upcoming Disney+ and Triggerfish animated anthology, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire. Ng’endo Mukii is currently a Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of the Arts at Tufts University.
About the Introducer and Moderator
TreaAndrea M. Russworm
TreaAndrea M. Russworm is Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at UMass Amherst and Associate Professor in the Department of English. She earned her B.A. from Brown University and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Her areas of research and teaching specialization include: video games and new media, digital cultural studies, African American popular culture, digital humanities, comic books and visual representation, and postmodern and psychoanalytic theories.
Professor Russworm has published three books: Blackness is Burning: Civil Rights, Popular Culture, and the Problem of Recognition, Gaming Representation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games (co-edited with Jennifer Malkowski) and From Madea to Media Mogul: Theorizing Tyler Perry (co-edited with Samantha Sheppard and Karen Bowdre). Professor Russworm is currently working on a fourth book, a scholarly monograph, on race and technology.
Trailers
Yellow Fever
Kitwana’s Journey
Kesho Pia Ni Siku Stories In Place