Five questions with the “Shoeshine” director

About two years ago, we asked a young film maker about his aspirations of making film in Tanzania. Since then, Amil Shivji has completed his studies and started Kijiweni Productions. His latest work, Shoeshine, is a short film set in Dar-es-Salaam and “is both a social commentary and an artistic depiction of the life, aspirations and perspectives of a working child”.

A still from Shoeshine

We caught up with Amil once again and asked him these five questions about Shoeshine.

1. You were writing the script for Shoeshine while starting Kijiweni Productions as a company. What was the context that prompted you to write this work?

Actually “Shoeshine” was first scripted out in my screenwriting class at York University in Toronto 2 years ago. We had to write a script no longer than 15 pages following a character and limited to 3 locations. I was always a rebel and didn’t believe in following one character but rather I decided to explore a setting with many characters. At this point I had decided anything I write would be in a Tanzanian environment because it is what I could relate to most and as well to prepare myself for when I arrive in my home country. The script analyzes the environment of a shoeshine boy’s workplace and the people he meets, consciously and subconsciously. I was quite happy with the script and received a good grade for it. I made some changes since then and when the opportunity came along late last year through Canal France International’s Haraka! Grant I applied and was selected as one of eleven from 120 submissions from Sub-Saharan Africa. Actually “Shoeshine” is the only film from East Africa to have won the grant. CFI will be showing it all over world via their channels.

2. We are shown hints of several peoples’ lives in Shoeshine, but only one goes deep. Why did you choose the Shoeshine boy – Godfrey Augustino – for this role?

Initially Godfrey’s character – Tambwe – is a blank canvas. We don’t really hear him or feel what he feels because it takes time to get to know someone. I took my time with Tambwe’s character because that is reality. How many of us know what goes through the mind of a shoeshine boy? Writing Tambwe’s character was tough, so I decided to make him neutral throughout the film until he is put a position where he has to make a decision. That’s when we ‘hear’ Tambwe. Also as a child character who has yet to be exposed to all the contradictions, politics and desires of Dar-es-Salaam city, he is literally in the buffer zone. He is neither victim nor victor.

3. Did you end up filming any scenes that had not been planned? If so, what made them necessary?

Ha, I could talk forever about the rain scene. Without giving anything important away, I can say that there was no rain scripted in our setting. But like many Dar-es-Salaamites know, our rain gods get major mood swings. On two of the three-day shoots, it rained with an interval of 3 hours all day. This meant shooting in the rain and sun and making script changes in dialogue and shot compositions as we moved from shot to shot. Luckily I had my special effects guy on set and he assured me we could make it work in post. Overall, I love the rain look. It does wonders for the mood of the film, so it works in our favour!

4. How did you choose your team?

I have to emphasize that the crew of “Shoeshine” was more than excellent and put life into this project. 95% of the crew I have worked with before on different projects and have loved every minute of it. So I contacted all of them individually and told them about the idea. Everybody was on board and I could not have asked for a better team to work with. The Director of Photography, Lester Millado, is a good friend and talented cinematographer that I met while studying film in Toronto. I also knew he was somebody who could work in the toughest of environments and still create beautiful images. My assistant director, Seko Shamte, who is well known for directing a new Tanzanian TV show – “The Team” – made sure that this film was made. I have to admit Lester and I got a bit ambitious with our shot list however, Seko made sure to infuse the art and feasibility together so we could come out with a finished product. My production manager who has all the contacts in the world, Josh Murunga, provided a lot of support and always had solutions to any barrier we would face. Two more people who were vital to this project were Momose Cheyo and Cece Mlay. Momose juggled being assistant camera and data management technician on set to editor, special effects and colourist in post-production. And Cece, who took over art design and wardrobe, worked very closely with Lester and Momose so as to produce the vision that we had set in our first meeting two months before production. The art design was a big part of the mood and tone of the film especially during the climatic shift in story.

5. What do you hope people will take from Shoeshine?

One thing that audience needs to know before watching this film is that this is not a popcorn movie. Not only do I hope but expect audience to do some thinking after watching it. The film begs you to think outside the box and that would be the ultimate success for me. I hope a lot of things. Most of it I talked about in my first interview with Vijana FM about being honest to our culture, talking about real stories, real people and how they are effected by our daily environment. In addition to that, after a private screening a lot of people told me that visuals really complemented the story and made it stronger. This is also a proof to our Tanzanian audiences and film community that we have the technical capabilities to make solid films and copy pasting from foreign film industries is not the way forward.

Amil also dropped us a 2-minute preview of the film featuring Mzome Mahmoud, Rachel Kuyunga, Yunus Osman and Godfrey Augustino.

Many thanks for the time Amil! We look forward to continuing discussions and more film.

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Al-Amin founded Vijana FM in 2009. With over a decade of experience in communications, design and operations, he now runs a digital media consulting agency - Lateral Labs - in Dar-es-Salaam.

This post has 3 Comments

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  1. I am patiently waiting to see the full movie. Nafurahi kuona sasa Tanzania tunaanza ku pay attention to details, kutoka kwenye mambo ya kiufundi mpaka uandishi.

    Nimependa sana yule dada aivyoigiza, yaani ame capture ile innocence ya wasichana wengi. But pale unapodhani atakuwa kama wengi ambao hulainika kama ice cream anayotaka kuhongwa nayo, ghafla anabadilika na kuwa si yule mpole naive young girl tena.

    Looks like the hunter was beaten at his own game….hah

  2. Thanks, the film will be playing on 1st July at wavuvi restaurant 12.15pm at the Zanzibar international festival.

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