Language II

 

Ifu Elimnyama: The Dark Cloud

An experimental film by Russel Hlongwane

 

Context:

Ifu Elimnyama: The Dark Cloud is a trans-media project that spans the disciplines of film, performance and text by Russel Hlongwane (Durban, South Africa). The work takes Zulu cosmology, folklore and systems of transcendence and places within a digital framework. Ifu Elimnyama attempts to converge disparate lineages of knowledge production (western and indigenous) through science, folklore, the digital and cosmology. Conceived as a long-term project, the Dark Cloud centres themes such as Afro-pessimism, futurity, neocapitalistic (African) states and invites an ontological approach to the digital culture. It currently exists as a narrative-led performance piece, an experimental film and critical text, with other iterations under production.

The storyline serves as a vehicle to move beyond the idea of Western and indigenous systems being mutually exclusive, whilst undermining a ''hegemonic western thought’'.

 

About the film:

Set in the year 1220 of the recently decimated metropolisvillage of The Great Mapungubwe. The surviving few send a group of their kind to the fourth dimension in order to preserve history of the ancients (since the Big Bang) would be secretly stored in the cloud. The local wealthy and resourceful Nqomqhayise family were given custodianship of this cloud.

However, the grandson of the Nqomqhayise family is secretly flying to Silicon Valley to lure venture capitalists to invest in his shrewd digital empire. His plan is to migrate the history of the civilisation into his company's server after which he will infect the cloud and charge the population to access their own history.

Upon this threat, the imincwi (those who migrated to the fourth dimension) secretly return to devise a strategy to counter Nqomqhayise’s shrewd plan. They have assembled a group of elite technologists from Mapungubwe to travel to Nairobi where they will work with local technologist to revive the cloud and hopefully successfully foil Nqomqhayise’s plan. The ultimate mandate for these geeks is to lay an extensive fibre network that will connect the entire continent.

 

Visual Guide:

https://findingctrl.nesta.org.uk/images/visual-guide-full.jpg

 

Watch the Film:

https://findingctrl.nesta.org.uk/ifu-elimnyama-the-dark-cloud/

 

Interview with the Filmmaker:

 

Prof Alinah Kelo Segobye interviews Russel Hlongwane the creator of Ifu Elimnyama: The Dark Cloud - An experimental film

https://youtu.be/GpudeD3oLK8

 

About Filmmaker:

 

Biography:

Russel Hlongwane is a cultural producer and creative industries consultant based in Durban, South Africa. His work is located at the intersection of Heritage/ Modernity and Culture/ Tradition as it applies to various disciplines of artistic practice. His said practice includes cultural research, creative producing, design, curatorship and the creative economy.

He is part of a number of collectives, working groups and programmes spread across the SADC region, the continent and internationally.

He operates as a curator, writer, producer, researcher, theorist and consultant.

He has shown work in Munich, Marrakech, London, Maputo, Karlsruhe, Harare, Bristol, Tokyo as well as throughout South Africa.

 

The Residency:

Ifu Elimnyama: The Dark Cloud is a trans-media project that spans the disciplines of film, performance and text. The work takes Zulu folklore and systems of transcendence and places them within a digital framework. Ifu Elimnyama attempts to converge disparate lineages of knowledge production (western and indigenous) through science, folklore, the digital and cosmology.

Conceived as a long-term project, the Dark Cloud centres themes such as the speculative, futurity, techno-capitalistic and invites an ontological approach to technology. It currently exists as an installation, performance piece, an experimental film and critical text.

The storyline serves as a vehicle to move beyond the idea of Western and indigenous systems being mutually exclusive, whilst undermining a hegemonic western thought. Inter-dimensionality has long existed on the continent, communication with other forms is quite quotidian in the so-called global south; in other words, more recent space explorations and tech-driven pursuits are, in fact not modern, but ancient in world-three (or the third world.)

The project therefore attempts to work with this confluence of ideas over a length of time by constantly revisiting these central themes through various mediums and disciplines.

 

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