The brief from client was to turn around a film for South African Tourism to accompany the president's nation address during which he'd issue a Nation-wide Covid lockdown. We had four days from brief to air and The brief was to A: create a film that felt emotive that spoke to South African's sense of civic duty (so we'd play our part by adhering to Lockdown regulations). And B: Give South Africans a sense of hope, imbue them with confidence that by banding together we would come out of the period stronger, and more empathetic. Baring this, and the time restrictions in mind, we developed the creative idea in collaboration with the Agency (Metropolitan Republic). If we'd had the time and resources, my creative approach would be to send various stocks of film to cinematographers all over the country and brief them to shoot micro moments that captured South African truths. Since it was all sourced, we used footage we'd previously shot for SA tourism, added stock which felt nothing like stock and briefed a colourist to grade every shot to feel like different stocks and cuts of film that we'd stitched together.

Monde is a US born, Durban bred director based in Johannesburg. Monde spent the past five years cutting his teeth in LA with occasional film adventures to London, Tokyo, New York, Cannes, Jakarta and back home to South Africa. Monde’s creative approach puts story-telling at the forefront and leans on genre, medium and craft to tell age old stories through a contemporary African gaze. Monde believes in complex, diverse and empowered characters and using every film as an opportunity to sharpen his voice as he strives to push each project an inch further than the last. 

 Above all else, Monde’s excited to find his rhythm at a time where artists are claiming their agency and articulating their stories as they see fit. Here’s looking forward to collaborating with artists and agencies to articulate contemporary Global stories. What a time to be alive.