Coast To Coast Creatives
Coast To Coast Creatives
Tendayi Nyeke: The Art and Business of Filmmaking
In this episode of Coast to Coast Creatives, host Joe Funk interviews Tendayi Nyeke, a Zimbabwean-born producer, director, and writer, as she discusses her remarkable journey to Hollywood and working on projects for Netflix. Tendayi elaborates on the cultural influences behind her storytelling, particularly in her latest project, 'Burns and Song', a pilot that recently premiered at the Chinese Theatre. The episode delves into the importance of diverse storytelling, her experiences navigating different film industries on multiple continents, and the critical intersection of art and business. Tendayi also shares her passion for supporting other filmmakers in telling their unique stories. Tune in for an inspiring and insightful discussion on creativity, culture, and the power of storytelling.
Tenye Wesbite: https://www.tenye-creates.com/
Tendayi Nyeke Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tenyecreates/
Tendayi IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3439968/
Tendayi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tendayi-nyeke-a4990921/
Dances with Films: https://danceswithfilms.com/burns-and-song/
Joe: [00:00:00] Welcome to Coast to Coast Creatives, a podcast for and about working professional artists within the entertainment industry. I'm your host, Joe Funk, and here we interview actors, directors, photographers, writers, and many, many more. Today, I'll be chatting with Tendayi Nyenke. A Zimbabwean born producer, director, and writer, Tendayi shares her inspiring journey from her creative upbringing and education to her current success in Hollywood, working on various projects for Netflix.
She also delves into the cultural and emotional influences for her storytelling, particularly in her latest project, Burns and Songs. A pilot which recently premiered at the Chinese Theater. With a focus on the intersection of art and business, Tendayi emphasizes the importance of diverse [00:01:00] storytelling and her aspirations to support other filmmakers in telling their unique stories.
Before we get going, please make sure you're subscribed to this podcast on the platform of your choice. And, if you have a moment to give it a positive review, it would mean the world to me. All right, let's dive into this episode with Tendayi Niyeke.
Thank you so much for being here today to talk a little bit about you, your career, this project that you have.
Tendayi: Thank you for having me. I can't wait to talk more about the project.
Joe: I can't wait. I can't wait to hear about it. Hear about that and just your life. In general, I've, I always do a bit of research on, on people beforehand. I feel like we're going to have a lot to talk about. So I'm just going to read off a little bit of your bio here. You are a producer, a director, and a writer. You have an MBA in music and creative industries from Henley business school. You've [00:02:00] worked in Australia. UK, South Africa, where you were nominated for multiple South African film and television awards, and you are now working on a producer, various projects for Netflix in Los Angeles.
Is that all correct?
Tendayi: Yeah, it sounds pretty epic, doesn't it? When you're just like grinding, you're just like, can one show get made? Damn it! But yeah, that's about right.
Joe: That is amazing. I can't wait to, to hear all about this. So to start out, Why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself, give us a little bit of backstory into your upbringing and your introduction into the arts.
Tendayi: Sure, so I'm Tendayi Nyeke, I'm Zimbabwean, born and raised, lived in Zimbabwe until I was about 18 or 19. Growing up in Zimbabwe at the time we had a very Very sophisticated education system. Well, that was a priority for our government at the time. So people's aspirations were like doctor, accountant, [00:03:00] architect, scientist, whatever.
And so that's the track I was on. I was like, Oh, I think I'm going to be a medical doctor. And then I remember seeing blood. I think my friend had an injury playing hockey or something. I was like, I want to pass out. I don't think blood is for me. This doctor thing, I don't know. And I was like 16, 17 at the time.
And by that point, you should be deciding what you're going to do right for college. But I always wrote, I was always. without even thinking about it. I was always writing songs. I was always wrangling my siblings because I'm one of five kids and my cousins live down the street from me. So wrangling anybody I knew and just putting these things together and forcing my parents and everybody who I could get to watch what we were doing.
And I'll charge five cents. I was a terrible entrepreneur, but I was good at putting stuff together. I didn't necessarily think it was going to be a career or anything, but I absolutely loved doing it. So by the time I was like, I'm not going to do medicine, the economy in Zimbabwe was getting a bit shaky.
And when I look back, I think I used to process emotions through writing. So whether it was a song or a play, so I was writing this play as I was [00:04:00] processing this disruption in my life. And as I was processing this whole, what is home? If we have to move, what does that mean? I was writing this play. And then I was always in the drama club and my drama teacher was like, okay, here's 12 nights.
We're doing the fifth Shakespearean play since in your high school career. I was like, why do we always do Shakespeare? Why can't we do an African play? And she's like, if you write one, maybe we can. And my friends came around, like they came through. Cause I think they were hungry for the same thing. Just see more African stuff.
And they're like, oh my gosh, yeah, what can we do? And friends that were artists painted the sets, and my friends that were amazing at fashion design did the co We put this thing together, and like, schools from around the country came to our school to watch this play. And I was like, what is happening?
People are responding to something I've created, and I knew I had to follow that. I felt so alive doing that. I loved it. Touching an audience with a story that had meaning and and I was just guided really well by a high school counselor to pursue film and then I did and just then honed in on that whole producing thing.
[00:05:00] So I trained in Australia. I did my film degree over there. I was very drawn by the filmmakers that come out of Aussie. They're just super talented and just offbeat in their filmmaking style and the type of stories they tell was a mad fan of Baz Luhrmann and Moulin Rouge. so much. And anything Nicole Kidman was in, Taika's from New Zealand, but similar kind of location.
So I just wanted to be around that environment. And that's how I broke in. So I did a film degree and then lived there for five years and I couldn't get work right away. But always knew in my heart, I wanted to tell African stories. So after five years, I was like, I want to go back home and really give this a go.
And then moved to South Africa, which was, it's really, it's next door Zimbabwe. And there's a really fun creative industry there. Film TV there. So I just worked my way up from being an entertainment journalist to a documentary filmmaker. I even did reality TV. And I was, do you know when you're good at stuff, but you don't enjoy it?
Like I was so good at extracting the horrible things about people and making the TV, but I felt such [00:06:00] shame. So I always felt this guilt. I was like, Oh, I don't like that. I'm manipulating what's happening to entertain, but maybe fiction might be a better path. So I pivoted to fiction. And by that point, I was like, Oh, Maybe I can empower myself by having a business degree and learn to be like a pop up producer and understand the business side of things.
And then did, started doing my MBA. I could do my thesis on live action, but animation's kind of cool and I've always loved animation. And then in doing my thesis on animation, just met all these really cool animation people. And there was an opportunity to pitch something to Disney. And I was invited by a studio that I'd actually interviewed because they were really intrigued that I was like, investigating the business side of animation and how to bring big budgets to Africa and help build an animation industry.
If we can combine your creative experience and this business stuff that you're doing, we could pitch to Disney and see what's possible, because they were already trying to do that. And the company's called Triggerfish Animation Studios and they've done a bunch of feature films. And so we pitched to Disney and they gave us [00:07:00] development money and we developed this thing and then it got greenlit.
And it took us three years to make, and then it was on Disney plus last year. And we won an Annie award, which is our Oscars. So that was super, super cool. But that's just like the short, long version of how I, how I arrived to where I am now.
Joe: I have so many questions. What I'm going to start off with though, is you said that you always loved animation.
How far back does that go for you? What's like some of the earliest memories that you have of animated work?
Tendayi: I think Lion King came out in 1996. I didn't know what I was watching, but I was like, I am feeling like everything in me is tingling. Like I was like, music, design, like I was just looking at the visual execution of this thing, how songs were driving story and I was feeling things.
I was connect, I'm like crying at this lion cartoon that's dying. For me, I just, I don't know when it was for you when you watch something and you're just leaning in the whole time and you feel like you're holding your breath until the [00:08:00] credits roll. So I fell in love, but it just didn't occur to me that it could be a career.
And then only when I was doing my thesis, because when you're doing a business degree, you're supposed to be looking for the business opportunity. And so that we brought me back to wait is a business opportunity with African animation because we've got so much mythology that comic books from around the world borrow from but what if we are the originators of our own stories and a bunch of other African animators and comic book writers were doing it already but I was like what if I just dig deeper and so that was this was my 30s now that I did it.
The business got me back into that feeling that I had and it laid a foundation for me finding a way in and pivoting from live action, even though my pilots are live action, but exploring that as a form of storytelling. So that's how it happened.
Joe: And you talk about how you have this passion for the place where art and business meet.
And I feel like not a lot of artists have that. The [00:09:00] business side tends to intimidate a lot of artists. How did you get this? And how has it helped your career to have both sides, the artistic and the business side?
Tendayi: I think my brain is wired that way. If I'm honest, like I I'm always, I'm quite analytical.
And I just think about like when I was a kid and putting on these plays and charging 5 cents for things, but never making enough money. And I was like, how do I make enough money? I think my, my brain is always split between how do I execute This idea, like what's involved with the pieces involved and then how can I have the freedom to be creative without depending on another person?
I think the pull to be independent is what made me want to pursue business. And the only way you can be independent is if you have really good partners or if you yourself are able to figure out how the business line works. I think it's the wiring and then just intentional. I really don't want to be dependent on big companies for ever.
Yeah. And so I just wanted to equip myself.
Joe: Yeah. [00:10:00] And a lot of amazing legendary filmmakers are able to adopt the mentality of one for them, one for you. Where you can play within the system so you can understand, okay, this is what's going to help the studios make money. That's what's going to get the gears in motion.
But then I have the opportunity to create my own stories as well. And being able to bounce back and forth is really important because they do have to understand that at the end of the day, it's a business and it's about making money and you have to play ball.
Tendayi: Yeah. Especially if you're working in the professional side of it, like.
If you're working in the entertainment business, it's about business. But if you have the privilege of living in places like Europe that are very supported by their governments and art organizations, where they're very artists friendly, and I know in France, artists treated as a way of recording culture.
So it's a completely different mindset. So it's not so much about the bottom line [00:11:00] necessarily, but it's about heritage and all of that stuff. So I think it's understanding the, the environment that you're working in.
Joe: What was the most intimidating factor in the move to the States and to the U. S. film industry?
Tendayi: I'm learning a new culture. I'm restarting and I'm like in my late 30s at the time and I'm going. I feel like I'm day one, starting my career again. And I should be buying a house now. I should be. So it was, there was a bit of an ego piece and a fear of do I deserve to be here? Because people around me were and are so exceptional and people my age has achieved a level of mastery and I was just learning so much.
That was super intimidating. But what I did learn was the skills were transferable to some degree. There was definitely specific processes that are very unique to the animation process, but lighting is lighting. Acting is acting. Producing is produced. You know what I mean? So I was like, Oh, okay, if I, if I can just learn the process, [00:12:00] but the thinking I've got, we're good.
So every day, I think I'm starting to get better.
Joe: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So those core artistic skills are the same. What about just the way that the industry operates in the States? What everybody knows about, you know, Working in the industry in L. A. or New York is it's all about networking. Is that been true here as well as South Africa?
Is it been true throughout your career?
Tendayi: It's pretty consistent. There's a getting to know each other component. It's important to keep creating because that's how you like learn your team and each other and build trust. And so then on your next gig, someone, Oh, no, Joe's a vibe man, hire him or whatever. So I think the more projects you do, the more you're able to build a reputation, but the breaking in piece, it's 100 percent the same, both sides.
Joe: That's comforting to hear. Even when I moved from Los Angeles to Atlanta, I felt like I [00:13:00] was starting over again, because you do lose a lot of connections and building those back up again is difficult. Tell me a little bit about, you mentioned, was it Baz Luhrmann? Are there any other directors or filmmakers that really inspired you growing up?
Tendayi: Heath Ledger's acting, jeez, he would just go all the way like from 10 things I hate about you to What's the Joker, uh, Batman, Dark Knight, I think it was. So from a creative, uh, I'm like, all just an absolute awe of, of that talent. And I'm so sad that he died as early, as young as he did. I love me a good guy, Richie Ruby.
I love the irreverence, the editing, the cinematography, the tone. So huge fan. I love Bradford Young, who's a cinematographer. He lit Arrival. Have you seen Arrival? Alien, like an alien story, but kind of drama. It feels like a drama more than it does a sci fi, psychological thriller in a way. So I like very genre y things.
When Peter Jackson did [00:14:00] Lord of the Rings, I was like, how did you do that? Those worlds were so giant. And I'm like, I just did a short film. It was a five day shoot and like months of it. How did he do Lord of the Rings? A South African horror called District 9. I don't know if you've seen it. Directed by Neil Blomkamp, which is also a cool one. Producers I really respect. There's Karen Tolliver, who's the president of Netflix Animation. Just like the range of work that she's done and what she's done for diverse filmmakers and breaking down doors, but also just worked on a range of different projects.
She was on Rio, and then Spider Verse, and then Hair Love. Like, they're all completely different, but they all connect with audiences. And I've learned so much about her. She often says, you can be specific, but you've got to learn how to connect with lots of people. And how do you create a memorable, undeniable experience for audiences?
So I have mad respect for that. Noah [00:15:00] Baumbach's directing style. You know how he's very good at using small spaces and it's, it's a lot of cameras following actors and, you know. Yeah, anyway, yeah, so I could say more I could say so many more.
Joe: I love it. What stands out to me with that list that you just mentioned is that there's something different that you like about each one sometimes you're talking about the cinematography.
Sometimes you're talking about the blocking. Sometimes you're talking about the acting Have you ever? dabbled in Acting, cinematography. Have you gone back to theater direct, directing since, since your, your childhood days? I,
Tendayi: I have. I, I, so the first play I did, so finish high school, take a gap year, 19, go to Australia, live in Australia for five years, come back, go to South Africa.
The first thing I did was a play. I had my entertainment journalism job and then, but then I, a friend had like a piece of a play that I then fixed, and then she's like, you should direct it. I'm like, okay. So I did, and I combined like some film stuff with theater stuff, and that was cool. It was, the story was like, uh, the [00:16:00] story of Jesus from the perspective of the devil.
So it was like an agent trying to work out how this guy slipped past him, right? Like, assuming that Jesus rose and all of those things, he's like, How did this happen? Play back the tape. So it's like this mystery. That he's trying to solve. So that was super fun. So we did, had a bunch of effects and choreography and all of that jazz.
Then I wrote another play after that, that was inspired by personal heartbreak. Aren't they all? And it was like a two hander, like a male and a female. And it was like, she was trying to make sense of why her engagement ended. And she's playing back again. I think they're playing back, revisiting the past.
Ooh, maybe I was dealing with some stuff there thematically. Also, I ended up playing multiple characters. So yeah, so I've done, and I've written one other play that I didn't direct after that. But yeah, and then I acted in, my roommate who's sitting over there asked me once, and there was something that I wrote and asked a friend to direct me in, and I loved the acting, but I hated the feeling afterwards, the feeling of vulnerability.
Was I good enough? Did you guys like it? [00:17:00] Because when you're acting, you're vulnerable, like you're a vessel, right? Depending on your technique. I would draw on real emotion versus, I think Meryl Streep doesn't. She uses muscle. She's got, I can't remember the official name of that style of acting, but I draw on real feelings.
And I was just like this raw nerve, so desperate for affirmation. And it made me deeply uncomfortable. And I was like, I'm too insecure to pursue acting as a profession, so I have not.
Joe: What strikes me about how you got into this is that it always comes from a personal place. You didn't immediately think about, Oh, how can I turn this into a play?
You're just getting your emotions out there, your emotions and your cultural background as well. Talk a little bit about the importance of bringing the cultural background, your heritage to work through your art.
Tendayi: Zimbabwe is such a small country that few people know about, and I think we're awesome.
Whatever stories I can tell that help people get to know Zim a little better and people from [00:18:00] Zimbabwe a little better, um, and the place that I grew up with, grew up in and love, I would love to do that. And I think it's just, a lot of filmmakers do that actually. Noah Baumbach does that. His joint marriage story was based on his own divorce.
We all do that as artists, right? We're pulling from something, And then it just spills over. So I think it is important because I think people get access into other people's worlds through the work we make. Even if it's heightened and fictional, it's like a glimpse into a world that you may never inhabit, or maybe you will, and maybe you can find yourself in someone's story that's very different from yours.
So this is why we should, um, lean into our experiences because this is what happens, right? We connect.
Joe: Yeah, I think that's a great segue into your latest project, Burns and Song. Tell me a little bit about this project and what inspired you to create it.
Tendayi: So Burns song is just really about this woman.
She's like the perfect housewife, the perfect wife, the perfect [00:19:00] mom. And all she wants is to keep her family happy and her husband happy and help everybody achieve their dreams in her home. And she's in service to that. Right. And what starts out as like a normal day starts to unravel very quickly. And she starts to lose control of a life that she's very carefully knitted together.
And then we see that there's a spirit that's. tormenting her, or that's begun to torment her, that she's been ignoring, that demands payback for something that she did, or it will actually unravel her whole entire life. This, it's like, thematically dealing with aspects of our past that we're afraid to address, or that we want to bury because we're scared about what they say about us.
There's definitely a generational component because she wants to give her daughter this perfect life, but she's hiding her own flaws. Sometimes what happens with secrets is you think you're protecting the people that you love when you have a secret, but sometimes you're actually exposing them to more danger.
And where that came from for me was like [00:20:00] my mom and just watching her. My mom is 73. She turned 73 like three days ago. Sometimes she'll just drop these. She'll just say these things about her past that are pretty epic. Oh yeah, we used to have soldiers in our house during the war and then they'd leave and I'd be like, sorry, what was that?
And then she won't say anything more about it. But then you've got the sense that that was a very significant moment in her life. I also find my mom very sensitive with very specific things and I've often wondered why those things are triggers for her. What are the things that the people that love us don't tell us?
Um, that if we knew might explain them and explain us. And so the more I learn about the older women in my family line, I'm like, oh, oh, I'm insecure with this area because I probably inherited that. And whatever this pilot is, the beginning of that, of what we keep from the future generation can actually hurt them.
But if we open up, it could free them. It could be a pathway to some kind of freedom and deeper connection and breaking generational curses. Or. Family trauma [00:21:00] and all of that stuff. So those are the things I wanted to unpack through this character.
Joe: It's deeply emotional, deeply human aspects that you're dealing with.
And a lot of filmmakers find that one of the most accessible way to bring about these themes is through horror. What was your logic in, in, in bringing horror as the genre for this story and these themes as well?
Tendayi: Horror, interestingly, is not my favorite genre, Joe. I don't, I don't pay money to go watch horror.
I do not, typically. The few get out, I had to be tricked. And, and I was like, Oh, okay, this is more psychological thriller. This is not like horror. Then talk to me as well. So there's certain things that I just won't pursue. But this story felt like. Ear hiding runny. is horror. The things that that can conjure up, the line between psychosis and reality.
I wasn't even thinking I [00:22:00] was making a horror. I was like, she's seeing this thing. And how do you visualize the thing that she's seeing? And then you end up doing that anyway. So yeah, I feel like the story kind of guided me to that. My intellectual side. completely understands what horror is doing. You know how we talk about the deep things that would, that's what horror is doing.
It's unpacking pretty complex things and there's different kinds of horror, but I have mad respect. It's just honestly the consumption. The thing that I found the most difficult though, was holding space for the actor because she needed to go to some dark places. And I think her style of acting was like mine, where she actually draws from emotional experiences.
So when she was doing the moments where she's reacting to certain things, I could see her going somewhere dark. I remember just committing in my brain, I'm not going to do more than three takes, because she just gave it everything. Don't hurt your actress in the process of trying to tell the story, but she also offered herself up.
Also, don't hold back too much because you're scared of where you may go. The [00:23:00] caretaking piece as well, to just hold her hand in her coming out when we're done with something, and see where I could support her in places. So that for me, that part was the scariest for me, but she was a very committed end.
Actress that is a professional. So she was very good at taking care of herself But always tried to make myself available to to support her after we did difficult scenes When you have an actor that is drawing on personal emotions for their performance What do you find? the rehearsal process to be like before the cameras start to roll.
How do you work with actors in that pre production phase before production?
I think I asked them not to go all the way there. Her style in particular, she liked to throw things at me and see how I was responding to stuff. And then I'd be like more of this, less of that. And my approach is talk me through the choice you made just to see where we're at.
And also just so I can know what her language is and what words to use [00:24:00] in. trying to guide right so she would do that she would throw stuff at me and then check in and i felt bad because my associate producer is also an actress and she'd be like tell her you like it because because i i'm a bit slow right so i'll be like And then I'm digesting what's just happened, but it's like a whole ass minute.
I'm just, so I, I don't react right away. I don't go, I love it because I'm, my brain's like edit, whatever. But we ended up getting a shorthand. Yeah, very much. If they're the kind of actor that wants to offer me something and then we have a conversation about it, I'm a big fan. I love giving context. So in rehearsal, I try not to ask them to go all the way there, but as long as I feel like they get it, they get the psychology and the individual that they're trying to portray.
Then I trust them to give it to me in a take, and then we can just shift dials depending on what we get out of that.
Joe: All comes back to collaboration. Tell me a little bit about the rest of your team on this. Your DP, any other [00:25:00] writers, editors, what was your team like?
Tendayi: Yeah, so starting from the development side, It was me and then I got a, I got some grant money to, to develop it and hire a script editor to just walk with me.
And her name is Ayanda Halimina and she's had two movies on Netflix. She wrote on happiness as a four letter word. The second one, which is drama, romancy, the bit of a dark, dark, dark. Edge. It's a book adaptation. She's a former executive, so she knows how to think audience and global, but also knows how to work with writers.
So she was terrific and just initially wasn't as personal as it is now. And she was like, you're holding back, you're holding back. If you really want to strip it to its core, what's the story you'd want to tell? So she really helped me find that and guided me really well. And then my associate producer is my business partner, Dikelo Mamiyala, who is an actress.
She comes from the musical theater world. And so she sings. So she is singing in the film, in the pilot. And I wrote the song and then she voice directed [00:26:00] the actress. The actress also trained in musical theater, but she hasn't sung. Like she's always done dramas and comedies, but never sung. And then when we auditioned her, I knew I wanted her.
And then I'd asked her to just read just to see how she'd do the character. And then when I asked her to sing, I was like, okay, I don't know how this is going to go. So the singing was really beautiful, but she wasn't confident. Um, and so we did some voice coaching. So Dikelo was really great with that. A good friend of mine, she goes by Texture.
She's a production designer. So she was our production designer. Won a bunch of awards, did a bunch of South African plays. And then got commissioned to do some stuff in Austria and Sweden. Then she moved to the commercial space and now feature film and series. And I'd always wanted to work with her.
We're both January babies, we're both born in the same year. But she's brilliant and she's an amazing mentor. And so she was just able to, I gave her prompts and she was able to put this world together for us. And then I'll just mention the DP, Mwangani Mulambo, who's LA based as well. We both grew up in Zimbabwe, actually.
I think I'm a year old, two years older [00:27:00] than him. And I was like, yo, I'm doing this thing. Can we, I know I can't afford you, but we go way back. And so, yeah, so he shot for us. So that's some of the team and they were all amazing. That's a great team.
Joe: That's sounds like some fantastic people. And it's again, goes back to those connections and the collaboration.
It's, it's all these people were like, Oh, I got to find a way to work with this person. I got to find a way to work with this person. And it's so beautiful when you can bring a team together like that. What was the most difficult part of the production process for you?
Tendayi: Oh, I can tell you right now because it makes me weep, weep.
I tell you the rain. I know Johanna's look like the back of my hand, but I forgot that in January thunderstorms. And they usually start in the middle of the day because it gets super, super hot, like LA hot, like ridiculous, like super, super hot. And then cumulonimbus clouds. And then of course, not talking hail poor, like as your sound guy will be like, we're not doing this right now.
And that literally happened. I lost four hours a day every [00:28:00] day. I forgot. I just completely forgot that Johannesburg is that way. So that was really hard because I planned these. exterior shots and tracking shots and, because there were a lot of exteriors in the pilot, and I had this picture and we couldn't do it.
And someone tried to, I think the AD was like, so our rain plan, I'm like, it's gonna be fine. And it was fine in the end, but it made me sad. We lost time and I couldn't do some of the fancy things I wanted to do. So yeah, that was completely my bad.
Joe: And this is premiering this week in Los Angeles. Tell us a little bit about the premiere coming up.
Tendayi: So it's tomorrow on the 22nd of June at the Chinese Theatre at 2. 45pm. And it's going to be in a block of other pilots as well. I think we're genre similar. So I think we're in that horror thriller kind of, you know, tone. I know one of the other pilots is more comedy leaning, like it's a comedy horror. I can't wait to see that.
[00:29:00] But I think we're the only African one, so I believe we're the first African. pilot to play at Dances with Films in 27 years. I know they've played a dockey and some other shorts and other things, but we're the first pilot. So it's going to be, I'm so keen to see how the audience responds to ours. So it's going to be a bit of a discovery for me.
So I'm quite keen to see that.
Joe: So you like to be sitting in the auditorium while your projects are screening?
Tendayi: I do not, but it's a necessary part of feedback. I don't mind sitting in the audience if I'm the producer, right?
Tendayi: But now this is my art, right? So now it's, it's vulnerable. I'm going to be pretty.
Joe: The vulnerability is, is next level. That's what scares me the most about creating a new project is I hear somebody laugh at a part that's not supposed to get a laugh. Just like a little part of my soul dies when, whenever something like that happens, but it's so important to, to get that feedback.
And I want to go back to, you were talking about, Art side and the business side, this is a [00:30:00] pilot. How far ahead have you planned this story? Do you have a Bible for this project?
Tendayi: We do. So, uh, there's a series Bible, which I definitely, I know will evolve over time, but it's written as a nine episode series.
So obviously the first pilot is written in short. I wrote the deck. So there's a series deck. So I know the shape and the arc of the show and where it's going. So my dream is that with this festival experience, we're getting feedback and I was super intentional about trying to play at various festivals just to see like the global connectivity of the pilot, because.
As my independent company, my wish is for African content to reach the world and not just African content to just be in Africa. I want to hold hands with the world. I want to work with international filmmakers so we can tell African stories, American stories, Chinese stories, right? So I want to see how the world responds.
It's super important. So I think this is going to be really cool because I think it'll give me information for the [00:31:00] Bible again. Like I hope it'll feed back into the development process, like just seeing what's hitting, what's weird, what should we push.
Joe: Tomorrow is the first time it's going to be seen in front of a full studio audience, right?
Tendayi: Public, yeah, it is. Yeah.
Joe: Congratulations. And you said it's at the Chinese theater, correct?
Tendayi: The
Chinese theater, that's correct.
Joe: Have you ever had a, uh, one of your projects screened there before?
Tendayi: No, I've seen a friend's project there. She had something play at the Beverly Hills Film Festival and I watched Wakanda Forever there and get this, uh, Ryan Coogler, Angela Bassett.
the producers showed up and they said hi on the one day I went to the Chinese theater and watched what kind of forever this that was very cool.
Joe: That's amazing. Yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful theater. I love it. Congratulations to you. I can't wait to see where this project goes from here. One thing I want to go back to, just with Burns and Song, it's described as a haunting take on African horror.
Can you [00:32:00] describe what that means to an audience that is unfamiliar with African horror and possibly the stories that go into that, the mythology of that?
Tendayi: Yeah, I feel like horror isn't There isn't a lot of horror coming out of Africa. We get a lot of magical realism, so stuff that's skewing fantastical.
And I think why that happens is That kind of stuff is integrated in our culture. We're very spiritually attuned just as a generalization, as a people group, just our history as a people. So a connection to your ancestors and appreciation of the environment and seeing the spiritual aspect of the environment and so on.
So there's just this mindfulness of a spiritual realm. And so it creeps in, like you watch a typical South African soap opera, Or a movie, there'll be an, a storyline with, oh, did, you know, did someone spotted a mermaid? Was it real? Wasn't it? Or, because we have that in our culture and it's, is it myth? Is it real?
So [00:33:00] horror for us isn't that big because it's just so close to home in a way, some of these things. But it's there, it is there, right? And so I think the haunting take on my side is, for me specifically, I grew up hearing about this concept of a vengeful spirit. in my culture, specifically Shona culture, that it goes by the name of Ngozi, which is like, if you do something super harmful to somebody, and if it leads to death, the spirit of that person will haunt you in your lifetime.
But if you pass on, it will haunt your descendants until whatever was done wrong is made right. So that was what's what inspired this because, because of my proximity to my culture, I would hear some of these stories like Oh, the lady down the road, she hasn't gotten out of the house because she's been tormented by it.
And she realizes she has to go give a gift of blah, blah, blah to this village and blah, blah. I'm like, why? No, because her grandmother [00:34:00] committed this crime. But why must she? Because it was never made right. So that's the lore of it's almost, and I don't know if it's real or not. And I think this is me and Miss Modern Tendai.
That's what's the line between real and moral lessons to go. If you don't make good, you'll be haunted just to scare us.
Joe: Yeah.
Tendayi: Or does this really happen? And for some people it really happens. And so burns and song for me is like, where's the line? Where's the line between the real your own psychos, your own guilt and shame tormenting you.
Yeah. There's that. There's that. Right. Are you really seeing that? Or are you just so distressed that you think you're seeing something? So, I didn't want to make judgment. It was more of a question for me, and that's why I wanted to do it this way.
It's going to be so exciting for you to see the audience reactions to this, and if they're picking up on these themes and these stories, because a lot of these stories are different cultures have different versions of them, where you hear something like, Oh, that's what it is.
[00:35:00] So we all kind of share emotional themes of these stories, but with different characters and different twists on them. We have a lot in common as humans, don't we?
Joe: Yeah, oh yeah, we certainly, we certainly do. Did you ever watch, speaking, going way back to Australian filmmakers, did you watch the Babadook?
Tendayi: I have not seen that.
Joe: You would love it. It is right up your alley. Okay. I've been meaning to mention that a few times. You would love that film. So please check, please check that out.
Tendayi: I've written it down.
Joe: This is a broad question, but what do you see as the future of African cinema? How do you see it evolving? And what do you hope your role is in its evolution?
Tendayi: I think the future is very exciting. Africa is 50 plus countries. With so many cultures, even within those countries. So can you imagine the diversity of content that's going to come out as the borders of content are breaking down, right? We've got Netflix's and streamers and [00:36:00] cable and whatever. So more money is flowing into countries.
That allows people to make more complex stuff with more resources. And even with fewer resources, people just super inventive and the lower barrier to entry, just in terms of cameras being more affordable and accessible and people teaching themselves how to edit. Already it's happening where independent filmmakers are making things at really tiny budgets, but people watch them.
People are, many people are watching them. So just the range, right, from like the micro budget stuff to the higher budget stuff, and across different genres, and stuff traveling. So I just see, Just more diversity and I think it's going to be very exciting and I just hope the world gets on board. I think shows like Blood and Water, which was filmed in South Africa, which is like a high school drama type thing, was one of the top 10 shows in the world.
So it shows that it's sellable and exportable. Swartzie, which was made in South Africa as well, won an Oscar. So different genres, different [00:37:00] budget ranges. And the world is recognizing them. So I think it's very cool.
Joe: And what do you hope your role in this is? Because you have so many different passions within the film industry.
You're a writer, you're a director, producer, you dabble in acting. What is your goal at the end of the day?
Tendayi: I think I'm probably going to land on being an executive if someone will have me or if I'm smart enough to make enough money to start my own thing. Because I ultimately love creating space for other filmmakers to thrive.
Because I know they're filmmakers that eat and breathe. Directing and they want to, they think about the visual execution all the time and they just need the right ecosystem to tell really cool stories. And I think I'm so passionate about diverse storytelling and contributing to a healthy industry that's supportive of different kinds of Filmmakers, gendered, race, cultural background, socioeconomics, that [00:38:00] I do want to be part of creating an ecosystem.
So I think with Burns, there was just an itch to tell a very personal story. And I think in my lifetime, that'll happen a few times. And maybe this moment is for me to tell a story, but I'm committed to being part of building the bigger picture and contributing in that way. Um, and if it means being an executive in an American company and I'm achieving this mission of telling global stories, That's a win for me.
If I'm doing it in the motherland, that's a win for me. So that, I think that executive part ultimately would give me a lot of joy. And if I can be of service to the industry in that way, it would be an honor to do that.
Joe: So I like to wrap up the podcast with one question for everybody. And that is if you could pass along one piece of advice to a younger version of yourself, the young artists that you were back in the day, what would that piece of advice be?
It's a heavy question.
Tendayi: I think I would say. [00:39:00] Oh, man, you're enough. Don't apologize for your dreams. You don't have to fit into anybody's definition of success and be a person first, be a human being first. The rest follows.
Joe: That's really beautiful. And I love how So much of what you're talking about today is paying it forward to future generations and to other artists.
You're reaching down, you're helping others up and helping other storytellers tell their story. And I can't wait to see everything that happens with the premiere for you and your career and the next steps in these. So just a big thank you from me for being here today and talking to me.
Tendayi: Oh, I appreciate, thank you, I receive them all wishes, uh, take them where I can get them.
And, and
Joe: where can people go to check out more of your work? Do you have any socials to plug? Any websites? Where can we find out more about you and [00:40:00] Burns and Song?
Tendayi: So, you can find us on www. n4november, d for dog, i for India, a for apple, n for November, i for India dot com. So, that's ndiani. com, which means who is it?
So that's like this whole diversity thing that I hope the company, we get to represent all kinds of people, right? And whose story is it now? Whose story is it now? So www. ndiani. com And then just me personally, you can find me on Instagram and LinkedIn at Tengye Creates And Tengye is my name, T E N Y E Creates I'm on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Joe: Wonderful. Please everybody go check out all of those resources and I hope that we can all see Burns and Song very soon.
Tendayi: Thank [00:41:00] you.