Sundance 2021: Nomawonga Khumalo
Each year we speak with the women featured at Sundance Film Festival, with this years festival being online it’s certainly a different experience for the filmmakers. Kick starting our series of interviews is, Filmmaker Nomawonga Khumalo. She tells us about her new short film Five Tiger, what inspires her and how the pandemic has forced the film industry to be more innovative and accessible.
What inspired you to make Five Tiger?
The overarching feeling I wanted to explore was one that originated in my pre-teen years. I’d always watched sitcoms and films where ‘The birds and the bees’ was a friendly chat, an introduction into adulthood by mild-mannered adults who expressed their understanding of this stage.
Where I was from, ‘The birds and the bees’ talks were tantamount to being read your rights before being arrested. “If you co-operate with your seniors, stay far away from the opposite sex and follow what has been prescribed in the man-made handbook of culture and religion, you will survive.”
I know many young women, like myself, who followed the rules and became survivors of sexual assault, suffering other types of violations before the age of twenty-one. The more I prayed, the more I resonated with the yellow-soled woman in TS Elliot’s masterpiece, Preludes. Our apparent transgressions haunting us well into the witching hours, flickering and floundering projections of our soul on Masonite, asbestos and tin roofs begged us to ask: did we deserve what happened to us?
My neutrons fired a million times over when I met a god-fearing prostitute on the outskirts of the city while working on a telenovela. She gathered fuel from a lot next to an abandoned textile factory while waiting for truck drivers to stop. Her peaceful tone underlined an acceptance of her fate and circumstances that I couldn’t bring myself to live with.
What was your first ever short film?
Not sure if they count did a bunch of small, quaint shoots with my family’s camcorder. I shot a twenty-minute-long music video when I was seven of my hit track “How can you chill with your uniform on?”
A fond memory is a documentary I shot and directed in high school about cockroaches in restaurant kitchens. Most of the doccie is me outside the restaurants, accusing them of unhygienic practices because they would not grant me permission to film. Getting my Michael Moore on!
We don’t have many black female motocross riders so about two years ago I shot and directed a short with the intention of developing a feature film. The story was about motocross rider who turns to the underground racing world to save her family farm. It was quite ambitious as there was no budget and very limited resources, let alone a protagonist who could ride a motorcycle. All very fun, very teachable moments in my career as what we think are good ideas are not always understood. It takes a lot of work (and help) to translate your vision.
Do you have a favourite Sundance Film?
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is one that stayed with me. I often find comfort in observing how other artists push and pull the boundaries of obsession, reason and sensibility. Film can drive you crazy so it’s good to know you’re not alone.
Who has inspired you in your filming journey?
Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson, known professionally as Michaela Coel has been my biggest inspiration. I resonate with her story as a filmmaker who has had to find her voice in a very loud space. To watch her take up space in an unconventional and incredibly brave way gives me the courage to try.
I admire her integrity and commitment to growth above progress as the one doesn’t necessarily denote the other.
How have you kept motivated during the pandemic?
I’ve used the pandemic as an opportunity to direct my energies towards self-care, the strengthening of my spiritual work and finding time to tune into the frequencies of the Earth. I am prone to anxiety so it was crucial for me to divert my attention from the external chaos.
What are your thoughts on the transition to online film festivals?
The world is undergoing a great balancing of the scales. Global events and movements (too many to mention) give us insight into the energetic agenda’s we are plugged into. The transition into virtual works to support the evening of the playing field, albeit requiring the industry to be innovative.
This innovation gives people, like myself, who have not had the privilege of travel, the opportunity to access the world’s best and most current stories. This is not only a matter of entertainment but presents several learning and growth opportunities for filmmakers and storytellers who are keen on packaging fresh, innovative stories but without the access to films can be vital references in the execution.
Often, I have found myself in creative spaces where certain films are crucial references and because I wasn’t at a certain festival, I have no access to them and so am left out of the conversation.
What do you hope audiences will take away from your film?
Culture and religion, although man made, require faith and acceptance that present as conviction. These convictions have a way of locking-in perspectives that see through the lens of fear and not empathy. This destroys our ability to look past ‘broken rules’ or ‘sins’ to see where the heart of some of our problems lie, enabling their propagation.
Five Tiger hopes to give a different perspective of a well-known trope- the Delilah, Jezebel and Eve’s of modern society. The bad woman who can destroy nations is portrayed as a mother and wife.
I hope audiences will walk away with a greater need for context in their news feeds, social media and day-to-day interactions.
Who has supported you in your career?
My mother, who strongly disapproved of my earlier interest in the medical field and wanted me to be a creative. My sisters Khanya, Zamo and Zoey who can’t keep a secret to save their lives and are always the last to find things out!
My South African film family TMPC Pictures, Nostalgia Productions and Wild Union Films namely Paulo Areal, Brett Michael Innes and Schalk Burger, who have been there from the beginning of my career. Without their investment and support, none of this would have been possible.
Our family across the seas- 141 Entertainment from the USA and Revolver Amsterdam namely Adam, Robbie, Nicola, Kirsi and Raymond have been crucial in
What do you hope to achieve in the next five years?
The world is changing and with it our 3D milestones and goals. I can count ten things I want to achieve materialistically in film over the next few years. If I’m being honest, all are a means to an end.
I want to make films to understand myself and my place in the world better. I’d like to make films to understand my ancestry and the history of my people better. Lastly, I’d like to make films for my unborn children. Embedded in my stories I hope will be the teaching of the power of our words and the spells we cast, the ways in which we heal our bodies and also the way in which we heal nature. These have been passed down to me orally from childhood and the next five years are about building the foundations that will help me share these with the world.
What are two pieces of advice you’d like to give to young filmmakers starting out?
1. If you find yourself stuck in a ‘room’, don’t fight to get out. Take in your surroundings and figure out why you’re meant to be there. The clue is always the first place you see but the last place you look.
2. What becomes of your work is often a far deeper reflection of who you are than you realise. Take care of the self and the art will take care of you. Guard the self and the art will protect you. Fight for the art and it will fight for you.
