Our Campaign
Hi, we're Nicola and Mpho, co-Producers on the feature film "She is King'. We are independent filmmakers (as we all are in our country!) and as women, we wanted to make a movie about a strong, talented young woman with passion and a dream. We were inspired by TV series like "Empire"and "Smash" and films like "Pitch Perfect" and "Moulin Rouge". Yes, we're ambitious!
We included a backdrop of an incredible female African role-model, Mkabayi, who was King Shaka's aunt and basically built the Zulu Nation with her brother and nephews. Our young lead actress is incredible and sings like an angel - a star is born. We chose a varied young ensemble cast to support her and some of our biggest local actors in the other lead roles.
We've been working on it for over 3 years and were thrilled to shoot in in June and July of this year with our Director Gersh, who has a commercials background. It was a tough shoot but the pictures are great, with really engaging performances, gorgeous locations and high production value. However, we need some funding to finish the film - the online, the grade and the final mix.
We have a commercial cinema release here in South Africa and the movie will also be on TV. But we believe that, with the proper finishing, the movie will appeal to audiences worldwide.
One of the goals on this movie was to show off South African music and we are really lucky to have tracks from Grammy winners Ladysmith Black Mambazo (the partners on Paul Simon's Graceland album), Juluka, Brenda Fassie and a number of traditional Zulu musicians. If you enjoy world music, this movie is a must!
Our movie is a passion project. Made for our daughters and our nieces and every young woman who has ever had a dream.
What we need
We need US$ 100,000 to complete the film the way we need to for international sales. If you are a US filmmaker, that might sound tiny, but we get incredible value for our money here in South Africa.
The whole budget of the film is about US$750,000 so the finishing portion is around 12,5% of the budget [we are using the words "about" and "around" as currencies are fluctuating madly right now]
We need to
- shoot a title seqence
- finalize the edit
- Do a grade of the picture
- Do a final mix on the film, and
- Output the film to a Digital Cinema format
We have a bunch of giveaways for various levels of support, including snow-globes (you gotta see the movie to understand that one!) caps, hoodies, social media thanks for our contributors, free streams of the movie and its incredible soundtrack and, for the top tier, the chance to actually make your money back by becoming a part-owner of the film!
If we don't reach our goal, every cent raised will still be used towards finishing the film and we will find the rest somehow. We are tenacious!
Why this film?
When people talk about our city, Johannesburg, they either imagine that there are Lions walking the streets or that we live in desperate slums. We want to show our city in all its modern beauty. Most people will see something they never imagined.
We want to show you that young African women are exactly the same as young Chinese women, American women, Brazilian women and German women ...... Our film tells a universal story that is fun and entertaining while sending positive messages to young women everywhere.
About the Film
A talented young woman from a rural village travels to the “Big City” of Johannesburg, South Africa to become a Star. She lands a role in a musical play about Zulu Queen Mkabayi, Shaka’s Aunt and searches for her identity as a performer, a Zulu, a woman and a daughter.
Will she be able to keep up with her more seasoned fellow performers, avoid the jealous machinations of the aging leading lady and survive the punishing rehearsal schedule to make it to opening night and shine like the star she is?
“She is King” is a joyous celebration of Zulu culture in a glossy contemporary setting, showing off Joburg as the "Broadway of Africa".