Ngendo Mukii
Nairobi Berries, 2017
VR experience for Mobile VR
My Nairobi is an ode to my city, from a quietly visceral perspective. It uses the physical environments explored in VR to delve into the spirit of the people who inhabit the boundaries of its social walls. We break between these boundaries in vertical movements of the camera, down into the ground, up from underneath the water’s surface, continuously moving and never finding a position in which we become comfortable. A sense of the passage of time, cyclic destiny, and endless repetition comes to a halt in the emptiness at an abandoned university square. Underwater the ghosts that follow us throughout the day find us in the night, and as this scene closes in the darkness, we know that it will once again begin, at sunrise.
My Nairobi considers the city from the small details of emotion, experiences that mark our understanding of its landscape. Where our sense of loneliness is underlined in the fear we fail to escape in the dark, and the glimmer of hope follows us into starless spaces.
CREDITS
An Electric South Production
Director: Ng'endo Mukii
Producer: Judy Nyawira
Art director: Harrison Mutinda
Camera: Ng'endo Mukii
Camera Assistant: Patrick Shomba
Editor and Motion Graphics: Ng'endo Mukii
Online editor: Stephen Abbott
Sound recordist: Wanyoike Kimani
Make up: Sinitta Owor
Stylist: Achie Otigo
Art Assistant: Grace Shiko
Art Assistant and Runner: Richard Mulama
Catering: Bush Catering Services
Transport: The planets
Post Production Sound: Ng’endo Mukii, Simon Ratcliffe (Sound and Motion Studios)
Additional Sound Effects: Carl Roberts
Executive Producer: Ingrid Kopp
Executive Producer: Steven Markovitz
Line Producer: Tamsin Ranger
Line Producer: Hessam Binesh
Post Production Producer: Stanford Gibson
Intern: Muhammad Seedat
Cast:
Carol Kariuki, Eddy Sibwor, Ng'endo Mukii
Special Thanks:
Rosemary Kahuki, Darren Emerson, David Mereka, Paul Okwalinga, Margaret Kariuki, Kipato Unbranded
In loving memory of Mama 'Ness
5th May 1933 - 17th January 2015
Goethe-Institut – Lien Heidenreich-Seleme
Bertha Foundation – Rebecca Litchenfeld
Blue Ice Docs – Neil Tabatznik
Alex MacNaughton, Shaun Wilson, Jessica Brillhart, Oscar Raby, Katy Morrison, Toby Coffey
IMAGES
VIDEO LINK
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ng’endo Mukii's portfolio spans advertising campaigns, children’s TV series, documentary animation and experimental films.
Mukii, a graduate of Royal College of Art (RCA) and Rhode Island School of Design, uses storytelling and creative, highly-textured animation to make compelling films. She is one of five recipients of the Focus Features Africa First film grant.
Yellow Fever, her graduate project from RCA, weaves together her memories and interviews with family members and mixes drawing, painting and real footage. The film investigates the effect of mass-media created ideals of beauty on African women, and the difficulty involved in attaining this ideal. The film has garnered a long list of accolades including Best Animation at the 7th Kenya International Film Festival in 2012, Best Animation in This Is England Film Festival (France), the Silver Hugo for Best Animated Short at the 49th Chicago International Film Festival (USA), and Best Short Film at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (Nigeria), all in 2013.
Originally aspiring to be an illustrator, Mukii paints and draws in and on her film, video and animation work. She spends her time between Nairobi and Tsavo in southern Kenya, animating little children, photographing dung beetles, and running away from scorpions.
If you are interested in exhibiting or viewing this artistic VR experience, please send an email to us.
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