In Conversation with Director Jabu Nadia Newman

Make it stand out

South-African director Jabu Nadia Newman is breaking the creative mould of film through bold moves and diverse casting. Her unabashed coverage of important topics that matter to women are told beautifully through her thoughtful lens. Despite being commercially signed, Jabu still creates for her local community – the South African youth. The honest creative talks passionately about her projects, diversity in the industry and her inspirational sources.

Hey Jabu, thanks so much for talking with us today! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your career?

Yes sure! I started filmmaking a while back, I really started when I was in university. And from there, that's when I started my first web series and worked with other students studying with me and just getting into the industry. Once I finished studying, I started interning at different production companies while still writing and producing my own work, working on short films and music videos, and working with people in my community and friends. Then I quickly joined on to be represented by commercial companies. I'm represented commercially, but I still also create my own work.

You created an amazing web series – The Foxy Five. How did you go about creating it from idea to final product?

When I was studying, I was learning a lot about the male gaze and I wanted to create a series that was entirely for women, about women and by women. I took inspiration from the Bechdel test, which is the idea that two women in a movie or on television are having a conversation that has anything to do other than a man. To help put this theory into action, I created The Foxy Five.

The Foxy five consists of entirely that it's women who are having conversations with each other about everything other than men. It's not about romantic relationships, love stories, or what men are doing. It's just about women. And at the time, I was really interested in looking, trying to create a woman of colour character from South Africa that I had never seen.

I chose the five characters to represent five feminist tropes. Thus, making fun of the fact that they were like these stereotypes of what feminists are and what they mean, and then also using the five women as the five subcategories in intersectional feminism, so each character represents one of those struggles, which is class, sex, gender, race. Then the final one is bringing it all together.

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You’ve talked previously about the web series being about intersectional feminism. What does intersectional feminism mean to you?

My take on intersectional feminism in the web series was looking at ideas of decolonizing feminism and looking at it from a South African perspective. The web series came out during the Fees Must Fall protests which were taking place while I was studying, and I was really involved in the political world and very inspired by the women who were teaching me these terms. I soon began learning about intersectional feminism from Black women who were my age. The Foxy Five was a web series to fictionalize these experiences and show them in a comedic light and act as a documentation of what it meant to be a woman of colour in South Africa and during that time.

You deftly explore different subject matters while still showcasing diversity in your work. Do you think diversity in the creative industries is lacking?

I think that there are many more diverse stories being told, and there are a lot more things coming to the forefront, I think, internationally, maybe less than I see in South Africa. But I do still believe that diversity is lacking from the initial and conceptual stages. I think the people who are really creating the work, opportunities, and jobs lack diversity at this level. I think there's a lot of diversity in front of the camera, but I'm not sure about behind the camera. There definitely needs to be more.

When does inspiration strike for you?

I think my source of inspiration is all my friends and the people around me. All the stories that I tell come from real experiences, or real stories that either I've experienced, or I've been, who have been shared with me. The people around me and what I experience every day are my huge source of inspiration.

And when inspiration strikes is there a creative process you follow to get from idea to final product?

I do quite a bit of research when I have the idea and then begin the writing process before doing the visual research. But I think it's always different. I think the only consistent thing is that I feel like I'm always like thinking about lots of things at the same time. My projects are always at different stages throughout my life. I'm always doing something. For example, while I'm editing something else, I'll be already writing or working on something that's next. That's what keeps me motivated.

“I think there's a lot of diversity in front of the camera, but I'm not sure about behind the camera. There definitely needs to be more.”

Your end products are always so raw and honest. Is this something that you focus on during the filmmaking process?

I think because I'm so inspired by my own life experiences and the women around me, that's always the kind of the stories that I'm going to. Those are the only stories that I'm really interested in because they're the things that I'm dealing with every day and that I face with when I'm out in the world. So, it is important for me to be truthful and honest with my own story and come from a place of things that I know and that I am close to and then I can speak on. It isn't really a conscious decision. It's more like I only tell those stories because that's what I know.

You recently signed with a UK and US-based company – how does it feel to see your work growing?

It's really amazing! I haven't worked with them just yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. It's exciting to see that my work is being translated overseas and internationally because I feel like my work is always very specific to South Africa. It's great and affirming to know that it translates because that means that the ideas and the themes are universal in a way. I'm really excited to cross over to the international scene!

Words: Amber Sunner