Wanuri Kahiu is a Kenyan born film director.
She has received several awards and nominations for the films which she directed, including the awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2009
After graduating from the University of Warwick in 2001 with a BSc degree in Management Science, she enrolled for a Master's Degree at the 'Masters of Fine Arts' programme in directing at the School of Film and Television at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Kahiu has critiqued the ways in which Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) control the popular imagination & media perception of Africa. She has expressed that one accesses money to be able to be a filmmaker in Kenya through making films about whatever NGOs are funding - films that are about AIDs or female genital mutilation. She states that it's because of this that Africa is reconstituted as the Other.
Science Fiction or Afrofuturism films are few & far between, so Wanuri's film 'Pumzi' is a shining example of true African imagination.
Her absolutely engaging film Pumzi takes place in a futuristic east Africa, 35 years after a World War III broke out over water disputes. It's a post-apocalyptic time & the people live in indoor communities where the lack of water dictates the way of life. Even urine and perspiration undergo a process of purification to be reused as drinking water.
Pumzi, the protagonist of the film, is a curator in a virtual museum of nature. When receives clumps of soil in a box, she plants an old seed in it. To her amazement it germanates almost immediately. She then seeks permission from her superiors to investigate the possibility of life outside of the enclosure. Her request is refused & she is removed from her job. She escapes the museum & starts walking the unknown desert driven by the possibility of life outside of the controlled environment.
Watch the short film Pumzi here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlR7l_B86Fc
We find this movie, as an artwork, very inspiring & hope that it will inspire more original creativity throughout Africa. We look forward to your next work Wanuri Kahiu!!
#AfricanFilm #AfricanArt #AfricanMovies #AfricanStyle #Afrofuturism #Scifi
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