The Oscar-winning director discusses the new African artist-created animated short film anthology he executive produced, filled with compelling tales of advanced technology, spirits, and monsters, now streaming on Disney+.
The premiere of a new animated sci-fi and fantasy anthology with a Disney imprimatur is always a newsworthy and highly anticipated event. When one of the executive producers is Oscar-winning director Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Lost Ollie), and the artists are 14 up-and-coming African directors and producers from Zimbabwe, Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt, the prospects become even more intriguing, and the sense of occasion is heightened by an order or two of magnitude.
Executive produced by Ramsey, Tendayi Nyeke, and Anthony Silverston, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire is a 10-part collection of original short films featuring bold visions of advanced technology, aliens, spirits and monsters, all imagined from a uniquely African perspective. From a girl who just wants to spend time with her mother who’s busy at work trying to save the Earth; to a reckless teenager who has to protect a precious herd of cyborg cattle from a deadly spirit monster; and a couple of law-breaking gonzo surfers, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire presents characters who are both familiar, and yet distinct in their deep connection to African history and culture.
The 10 films are: Stardust (Ahmed Teilab, Egypt); Mkhuzi: The Spirit Racer (Simangaliso “Panda” Sibaya and Malcolm Wopé, South Africa); Hatima (Terence Maluleke and Isaac Mogajane, South Africa); Enkai (Ng’endo Mukii, Kenya); Moremi (Shofela Coker, Nigeria); Surf Sangoma (Nthato Mokgata and Catherine Green, South Africa); Mukudzei (Pious Nyenyewa and Tafadzwa Hove, Zimbabwe); First Totem Problems (Tshepo Moche, South Africa); Herderboy (Raymond Malinga, Uganda); and You Give Me Heart (Lesego Vorster, South Africa).
The series launched yesterday, June 5, and is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.
The show’s pedigree is further enhanced by the participation of leading African animation studio Triggerfish, which was awarded the Mifa Animation Industry Award for “the pioneering role that the company has played in animation in South Africa, and Africa most widely” at the 2021 Annecy International Animation Festival.
We spoke with Ramsey about the creation of the anthology and his role in the production process, as well as the dawning of a new era in African animation.
But first, enjoy the series trailer:
AWN: This is a remarkably innovative program, not only in its revelation of little-seen African perspectives, but also in that it takes advantage of the most state-of-the-art visual technology. Can you talk a little about the genesis of the project?
Peter Ramsey: Most people have no knowledge about the African animation industry or the surrounding culture. Before I went to South Africa in 2019, I didn't know anything about it. I was first invited to the Cape Town Animation Festival in 2018, but I couldn't go because of Spider-Verse. So they had me out the next year and I found myself in the middle of this super-energetic, super-creative scene. There was such energy there and you felt like the place was just ready to explode, because everybody was steeped in animation and pop culture. It was as cutting edge as anywhere else, but they just hadn't had that exposure on the world stage. And it was so infectious that, months later, when Triggerfish asked me if I'd like to be involved in this anthology, I said I would love to, because of the spirit that I felt there. I knew it was something that, one way or another, was going to explode and get out into the rest of the world.
AWN: We've known about Triggerfish for a long time. They've been digging where the ground is very hard, so to speak, cobbling together a business, doing whatever they could with whatever regional money was available, and going to markets and saying, "We're here. We can do good stuff." And, all of a sudden, because of this explosion of remote production, things started opening up. Can you talk a little more about your specific role in the project?
PR: As a creative consultant, I was involved in script development, visual development, pretty much every aspect of production. I would come in and I'd give notes and I'd talk to the directors, but there was also a mentorship aspect too, in that I would relate my experiences to them. Not all of them had directed narratives before, and even though these are shorts, they still have to be pretty tightly constructed narratives – so that was something that we worked on a lot. And there was a lot of mentorship around the idea of, how do you navigate the process? What's leadership like on one of these? And how do you protect the vision without being a slave to ideas that may not be working anymore?
There were a lot of people who had quite a bit of experience, but the short format and working with feature-caliber production values was new. I think also the idea that this is international distribution, this is Disney, was intimidating. I was like, "Come on guys. I did it, you can do it. It's not that great a mystique if I can do it."
AWN: Do you have any sense of how this project has been promoted, or covered, or talked about within the filmmakers' regional ecosystem, so to speak? Is there any feeling about what it means to those communities, and what it then means internationally?
PR: It's going to be really interesting to see. I do know that Disney+ is in some places and not other places in Africa. I’ve heard from a few Africans, and the fact that there’s an authentic voice in these things, and the knowledge that it's actually made by Africans and that it's going to go out into the rest of the world, is a huge thing for them. Just having an honest and fair showing of, "These are the things we're thinking about. This is what our pop culture is like, and this is our humor, and this is how we talk about ancestry, and this is how we look at history." All those things, within the context of science fiction, of futurism, of something that's of the moment.
The thing that's refreshing about it to me is that there are stories centered around social media, there's a family sitcom. There are recognizable genres and recognizable aspects of contemporary culture, but they're wrapped in African culture. The social media thing is based heavily on African myth, and ancestor worship is entwined with all these things. So there's a spin on these familiar things that gives it a different twist and a different flavor.
AWN: Based on the stories the filmmakers chose to tell, what would you say were some of the specific driving forces behind the narratives?
PR: Something that struck me pretty early on as we were developing these films was how many of them were about trying to reconcile with history, whether that's in the form of ancestors, or in the form of past conflicts or colonial issues. So many of these stories are about figuring out how to live with the past, or reconcile with the past, in order to move into some kind of new future. For example, in Mkhuzi: The Spirit Racer, the protagonist has a dual heritage, and a big part of that short is about him reconciling that double heritage in order to achieve his goals and move on.
The filmmakers also want to be seen as part of an international community in their own right, not as colonies or as charity cases or anything like that. They want to be able to honestly say, "This is our culture, this is our history reflected through our culture, the way that we tell it, not the way that you've been told, not as a series of hardships and problems. This is the lens that we see it through and what it means to us."
AWN: As far as you know or can share, what's next? Are there plans to produce more of this?
PR: I think everybody's waiting to see how it's received, honestly. I know there's some enthusiasm for making series out of a couple of the ideas. As for the individual filmmakers, it's an incredible showcase for them, and I hope that they get a real boost and some real recognition for what they're doing. But I really hope there's more. It's been a great partnership, really open and honest, so I'm hoping that more can come of it, that there will be more African voices that get their day in the sun. I'm knocking on wood all over the place.
