After Sharing the Same Platform with Bill Gates, Celebrated Kenyan Filmmaker Does Something Pretty Amazing!
She made history as the first Kenyan to speak in a Ted-X event. An event that ha seen the likes of Bill Gates, Emmy-winning creator JJ Abrams among other prominent figures speak.
Now, Wanuri’s feauture film has has been picked by Triggerfish Animation Studios.Hers is among the selected four features and four TV series for development from the inaugural Triggerfish Story Lab, established with the support of The Department of Trade and Industry and The Walt Disney Company.
“From misfit Zambian girls who become low-budget superhero-super-spies to a stubborn 12-year-old Kenyan girl who defies tradition by racing camels, from a young South African scientist who accidentally turns her annoying little sister into a new source of electricity to a timid lemming who must defy his nature, these are characters we fell in love with,” says Anthony Silverston, head of development at Triggerfish. “We’re excited by the range of stories, that explore everything from contemporary urban to Afro-futuristic worlds. We’re looking forward to bringing something fresh to the screen.”
The feature films selected into the Story Lab are:
The Camel Racer (Wanuri Kahiu and Nnedi Okorafor – Kenya/Nigeria)
Dropped (Ian Tucker – SA)
Lights (Kay Carmichael – SA)
The Wild Waste (Naseem Hoosen – SA)
The TV series selected into the Story Lab are:
Bru and Boegie (Mike Scott – SA)
KC’s Super 4 (Malenga Mulendema – Zambia)
Ninja Princess (Marc Dey and Kelly Dillon – SA)
Wormholes (Lucy Heavens – SA)
The selected storytellers include Nnedi Okorafor, a Nigerian-American World Fantasy Award winning novelist; multi-award-winning Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu; South African YouTube phenomenon Mike Scott, whose music videos for Goldfish have over 12m views; and Lucy Heavens, one of the writers on the breakout South African animation hit Supa Strikas, which is broadcast in 120 countries around the world.
The selected storytellers will start the new year with a two-week immersion trip to Disney’s headquarters in Burbank, California, where they will receive mentoring from key studio and television executives.
Triggerfish will be investing up to 298,693,442 Khs ($2.8m) over the next three years in The Story Lab.The development process can take a number of years. For each phase of development, Triggerfish will provide financial support, workspace, and expert guidance by internal and international consultants and mentors, as well as a route to market through top-tier relationships with leading Hollywood agency William Morris Endeavor.
