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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