June 14, 2011
IFP South Africa Fellow Lekgetho James Makola is working towards a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film at Washington D.C.'s Howard University. His first-ever student project, a short film called Transmission, was recognized at the 2011 Annual Paul Robeson Awards with an award for Best Actor, and Honorable Mentions for Editing and Sound Design.
Lekgetho produced the film for a Howard University cinematography class last November, and considers it a kind of 'supernatural thriller'. He writes:
"The story is about a young African man living in the diaspora who had cut off ties with his family back home.... His troubled soul is haunted by spirits of a lady who enters into his dreams, but physical evidence of these encounters are present in real life. The story is inspired by the supernatural myths and beliefs within my own community in Limpopo, South Africa."
Legketho is also a fine artist and museum curator who believes in using art and culture to develop South African
communities, and to inspire and reaffirm his country's vibrant traditions and national identity. "I chose to adopt film as a mass communications medium that would allow my work to be far reaching," says Lekgetho. "Film as an artistic medium has a major role to play in getting our heritage off the archives, libraries and museum shelves. Film will help us tell our own stories to the world."