Zambia isn’t known for its film industry, and for good reason: not many get shot there, either by foreign companies or local crews (the list of Zambian films on Wikipedia is pretty damn short). When people talk about Zambia they usually talk about Victoria Falls and the many game reserves that make it the perfect African Safari destination.
Noah Pink, a Canadian writer, director and music lover, isn’t about to change that, but at least he’s added to that pretty damn short list of “Zambian” films. And it’s quite an achievement for a low budget film shot by a two-man crew with a cast of non-professional actors to receive a decent reception at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight, the independent section held in parallel to the Film Festival.
Called ZedCrew, it’s a story of frustration, struggle, big dreams and the risks one is willing to take to achieve those dreams, and provides a fresh, raw insight into the lives of young urban Africans who look to Europe and America for a future that looks impossible at home.
It revolves around a young hip-hop artist (played by real life gospel/hip-hop artist Alvin Fungo, aka H.O.N.G . The Lyricist) who, having had enough of the hopelessness of trying to live off a musician’s earnings in Zambia, decides to head for the States to chase the American dream.
The story was inspired partly by Noah’s discovery of the spread and pervasive presence of hip-hop in Africa (even in the villages, and homegrown stuff, too) as well as by the story of six Mexican men discovered in a shipping container – alive, fortunately - at the port in Halifax, his hometown.
Every year tens of thousands of young, educated Africans risk their lives attempting to migrate, usually to Europe but also to anywhere else that offers better prospects, the States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, etc. No one knows how many die making the journey.
"Life is all about risk, but the greatest risk is not to take a risk at all. So you must take the risk in order to survive." - 39-year-old Justin, Engineer (Nigerian migrant stuck in Oujda close to the Algerian border)
“Dying poor or dying while trying to reach Europe is the same thing.” - Jean-Claude, a young Ivorian hoping to make it to London
Not all migrants from Africa emigrate by risky means, many qualified professionals do it legally by securing jobs abroad. This is the brain drain that costs the continent around 20,000 professionals each year (this is a conservative figure; the World Bank estimated back in 2004 that 70,000 of Africa’s most qualified people leave each year and the continent spends $4bn to replace them with expatriate workers.)
H.O.N.G . (Hope Of New Generation), whom Noah initially contacted through MySpace, thought the project was a hoax until the Canadian dude turned up in Zambia. Like most Zambian musicians, Alvin/H.O.N.G. isn’t signed to a label but as is the case with more and more artists today he didn’t let that stop him from putting out an album, Lyricist – World of Liberty. He also scored the entire film.
Contact the ZedCrew team for details of the DVD
Written by Mudzithe Phiri
EXTERNAL LINKS - AFRICAN MIGRATION
Backgrounder: African Migration to Europe (New York Times)
African migration: from tensions to solutions (UN – African Renewal)
African migrants' elusive dream (BBC)
Africa's lost elite sit on packed bags in Morocco (Deutsche Welle)
African Migration and the Brain Drain
