Story Time,
I Journeyed to Dakar for what was meant to be a short visit.
Little did I know that a few days trip would easily extend to about 8months, during which i adopted and cared for a shy “British shorthair”cat named kiwi, made new friends, and immersed myself with the aquatic landscape and creative ecosystem of Senegal, all thanks to Covid-19.
My time in Senegal was a mix of emotions , a time where I evolved into a simpler version of myself, despite my mind bin clouded with the never ending longing for “home”.
But in the midst of all the chaos going on in the world , the simplicity of the ocean , my undeniable love for adventure and boisterous people of Senegal I found peace and I found myself.
Hence the title “PAUSE”.
For the first time the world had to stop and listen to the sound of nothing.
I will be forever grateful to Senegal for shaping my evolvement into a better artist, a filmmaker and a simpler human.
“The Birth”
One day, I woke up with an idea that was all over the place, but the one thing I kept hearing was Wana wana's voice.
So I call her, yea we cool like that.
I hit her with my scattered thoughts, at this point even I wasn’t making any sense but the one thing I was certain of was her voice.
She said to me, boy go get your house in order but I got you and i'm down.
That was the inspiration I needed.
Love you Wansie.
Creating this was very experimental for me, it was almost an impossible task, seeing as there was a lot of pandemic imposed restrictions and ever changing strict curfew , coupled with communicating with creative minds that mostly didn’t speak in English.
So where do I start?
I went on @instagram to fish for a DOP(director of photography).
I was looking out for anyone at all that has shot something close to what I had in this big imaginary head of mine.
Luckily enough for me I found Mamoune
He was so cultured and professional. Even if he might have thought my idea was bolos at first he smiled noded (this will soon be our form of conversation including google translate as both of us speak either English nor French)
He was kind enough to open up an arsenal of gear and hands to help.
I said bro I can’t afford all these ( with multiple nods of course ) and he multiple hand gesture saying it’s fine he got it!
His gesture was the coolest and most enduring gift of 2020.
And last but definitely not the least, the people at blackrock Senegal.
I can not thank you enough for believing and helping to facilitate this crazy idea of mine.
And my ever ready and able editor Dapo who took this project and treated it like his baby. You brother are a star!
So whoever watches this and starts asking questions “what exactly is this film?”
Well glad you asked, to me its a memorabilia of my sojourn in Dakar during a bitter sweet time in the world, a moment in time documented for posterity and hopefully a proof of concept for something that is to come.
Imagine a 007 meets Micheal Powers.
African super hero.
And to you it can be whatever you want it to be.
If by any chance I forgot to mention you here let this be a personal thank you.
Do Enjoy!
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