Jabu Newman is an artist and filmmaker who uses her work to explore and promote intersectional feminism. The multi-award-winning director and photographer has had an incredibly impressive career in the relatively short time she’s been on the scene. It all kicked off by creating a web series with friends called Foxy Five. The series follows a fictional group of feminist activists during the Fees Must Fall protests and explores the realities of life at the time. Since then, she’s gone on to assist on the critically-acclaimed This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection, and has written and directed her own highly lauded short films like The Dream That Refused Me which won two awards at the Ciclope Africa Awards Festival 2021 as well as a Silver Cannes Young Director Award.
In this podcast, we find out that being a director comes with a lot of rejection. Personally, I never really considered the struggles of getting work as a director so it was enlightening to hear about the process first-hand. It’s not all bad though. Jabu has relished the opportunities to creatively make sense of the world around her and have an impact on it through film. We hear about her political upbringing and growth, and how it influences her art. We also learn the steps she took to go from creating Foxy Five to directing ads for brands like Adidas and working on films like This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection. Enjoy.
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