As we emerge from a devastating couple of years of changes in the world, people with a wild commitment to change the world will propel us into a bright future. In filmmaking, Director, Screenwriter-Producer Thabiso Christopher is one such individual. After pivoting from his career in structural engineering, Christopher found himself in the direction of filmmaking. It took him sleepless nights of writing and watching late-night shows in the cinema.
His latest project is the directing of the feature film PRIME, which he is currently shooting and is produced by fellow indie filmmaker Khalid el-Jelailati. PRIME is a film about the past traumas and buried prejudice of a proud young man, Marius, threatening to push away his loving and devoted partner, Thembi, when his racist father dies. “At its core, the film is about trauma and love. It’s the story of what happens when trauma overwhelms love, pushing it back into the dark corners of one’s soul to try snuff it out.” Christopher says. He also credits this film as an ode to Global Cinema and is excited to bring this work to the global stage.
This passionate filmmaker is taking lived experience and personal tragedy and turning to the art form of film to make something for the betterment of humanity. “I’m a self-driven filmmaker who came from another profession, engineering. But I spent more than a decade and a half on storytelling, crafting my voice as a writer of stories, dreaming of making films,” says Christopher. His motto is ‘Things are what you make of them’. Christopher has been able to repackage skills from engineering, and this has made him a detail-orientated, self-driven, disciplined, and cinema-focused individual.
Christopher describes his love for cinema as a deep spiritual connection, “It is the way I express my questions about life, transforming my experiences into stories that mean something. It’s what my loved ones sacrificed for, and I’m eternally grateful to them for supporting me.” In turn, he has been rewarded for his efforts. In 2017 he was awarded the NFVF Youth Filmmakers Project (2017) and soon completed the award-winning short film The Turning Sun, which he wrote and directed. After that, he has written several feature films, such as Rage of a Lioness showing on Showmax, The Last Fight (2019), and Pride of a Lioness (2021), and has line produced for films such as Nandi (2021).
A few directors who have pivoted from other careers are Ava DuVernay, who went from being a film publicist to a film director, and Akin Omotoso, who went from acting to an award-winning director. Pivots are essential to personal growth, and Christopher can’t wait to show the world what a person with a relentless search for knowledge and self-education can do.
