I emailed Serati Maseko before I flew to South Africa, asking if she'd be interested in a collaboration. She said yes. We spent months on calls, building something from her essay about the tug of war between her African heritage and the colonial language that governs the mind — between the person you inherit and the person you're forced to speak as.
When Phoenix, our movement coordinator — someone I'd met by chance on another project in Cape Town — joined, everything came together. The film is narration, dance, and the space between languages. It won Berlin Short Film Festival 2026, and is nominated at the 1.4 Awards and Toronto International Short Film Festival. It also has a companion podcast, because apparently one medium is never enough.
You can – and should - learn more about the project here:
- Direction, Executive Producer
- Jens Sage
- Director of Photography
- Sebastian Sellner
- Movement Director
- Phoenix Chase-Meares
- Music Composition
- Ethan Houser
- Sound Recordist
- Gary Rundle
- Color Grading
- Andrea Gomez
- Stills Photographer
- Steve Marais
- Wardrobe Stylist
- Dihantus Engelbrecht
- Make Up Artist
- Kid Redsky
- Hair Styling Artist
- Kelly Taylor
- Props Master
- Byron Kensley
- Executive Production
- Shelter Productions
- Service Production
- Juice Films
- Producer
- Lukasz Kus
- Local Exec Producer
- Carmen Amos
- Local Head of Production
- Marisa Bracher
- Line Producer
- Karin Tanchel
- 1st AC
- Kevin Schnider
- Loader
- Marcel Maasen
- Gaffer
- JP du Preez
- Best Boy Lights
- Itumeleng Mdodana
- Spark
- Mohamed Zaid Lagadien
- Medic
- Justin Koekemoer
- Unit / Location Manager
- Kendall Smithdorf
- Catering
- Kitchen Republic
- Camera Rental
- Panavision Cape Town