Director Lebogang Rasethaba’s work is impressively a regular feature on sites like High Snobiety, i-D, Nowness and Vice. Rasethaba has completed three feature-length documentaries and continues to dominate the advertising world having recently directed three spots for Nike…
How would you describe your career trajectory?
It’s been an interesting ride. After my masters in China and the success of Future Sound of Mzansi, I came in with a lot of hype but soon realised there is no time for that in this game. I under-delivered at the beginning of my career and that was important for me to realise I can’t build a career on hype. I had to push myself to compete and deliver at a level because the game is intense. It’s very competitive; you always have to keep people interested in you and your point of view, which means you need to keep developing. I have just entered a new level, which is scary but exciting.
Describe the moment, if there is one, when you realised you had gone up a level?
When I started pitching against people I considered very senior to me, I was like: “shit just got real.” I’ve pitched against Teboho Mahlatsi, Bruno Bossi and Tristan Holmes; those are some serious cats. It made me feel like, damn, maybe I am a serious cat too? I mean I lost to all those people but getting in the ring with them was amazing. Next time I just gotta knock them out.
Where do you find inspiration?
The internet, books, conversations. Observing this insane world we live in and the people who occupy it
Do you have any local mentors?
Yeah, but for different reasons. My mom is my mentor and unofficial life coach. Siphiwe Mpye is my spirit guide in the lifelong journey of undoing patriarchy within myself. All my filmmaking friends and colleagues, like Zwelethu Radebe, Zandi Tisani, Sifiso and Tshego Khanyile, Thabang Moleya, Tebogo Malope and the rest of my peoples in my directors guild. The amazing DOPs I work with, like Adam Bentel, Rory O’Grady and Motheo Moeng.
Top three favourite directors?
- Kyle Lewis is such an innately creative being that I damn near freak out thinking how we’re all gonna work for him one day.
- Zwelethu Radebe has such a deep love and understanding of cinema that sometimes I feel like a fraud when I’m around him.
- Zandi Tisani is so smart and so switched on I feel like a dumbass at the end of every conversation I have with her.
Which projects are you currently involved in?
I am making a documentary about patriarchy for MTV; you can thank us later for saving your grandkids.
Me and Spoek (Mathambo) are editing a documentary called Mutant, about an eccentric rapper from the Cape Flats who is known as the god of Afrikaans rap. He sees himself as the voice of coloured people, an entire race that gets marginalised in very polarised racial dialogue.
There are also a lot of brand films and commercials in the matrix, you know, because that’s actually what I do.
What has been your biggest career challenge to date?
The hardest thing about being a director is finding your voice and getting people interested. After that, the real challenge is getting people to stay interested in your voice. You need to constantly fine-tune your vantage point and re-evaluate your sense of right and wrong, left and right, up and down.
What has been the highlight of your career thus far?
I was complaining to Spoek that I was having a bad year but he said that no one sinking three-pointers at a Nike basketball event with Pearl Thusi on his cheer squad is allowed to complain about having a bad year. I won ad of the year. I had work screening at TED Global. I mean those aren’t career highlights, but things aren’t so bad for a youngster growing up… But my career highlight is still making my mom proud.
