Laduma Ngxokolo, a South African textile and knitwear designer, has created a short film titled: My Heritage, My Inheritance, to introduce his fashion brand, Maxhosa.
Xhosa culture is a dominant inspiration and influence in Ngxokolo’s contemporary design aesthetic and features in the film which portrays the tradition of initiation, a ceremony inducting boys into manhood.
Ngxokolo approached Batandwa Alperstein of production company, The Visual Content Gang, to direct the film which was shot in one day at Panavision Studios in Cape Town.
“The film was shot in a studio using a black-out cloth for a backdrop. We didn’t have a huge budget so we had to stick to the simplest setup, without compromising the quality of the picture. We shot it on a Red Epic in order to get the beautiful detailed slow motion shots, especially for the stick fighting,’ said Alperstein.
Ngxokolo said that he wanted to make the public aware of the culture which influenced his designs and added: “I want them to see it as ideology that preserves the Xhosa heritage for the future. I want people to ultimately say “this is culture made by my people, that is modern and classic’ so they can treasure my items. I wanted something that would make my current patrons even prouder of their items and the brand, and for new people to understand the deeper meaning behind my brand.’
The film was produced by Cherize Ross and shot by DOP Kent Satram while Graham Ward of Wardwide Music and Ross McDonald of Hey Papa Legend were responsible for sound recordings, sound design and music composition.
Visit the Maxhosa website to view the video.
