Kenyan award-winning film producer Ng'endo Mukii has joined ten directors selected to work with the Ksh 14 trillion Disney entertainment company.
In partnership with Triggerfish, a South African animation studio, the media enterprise's plans on working with other animation studios across Africa and around the world. the announcement was made during a special presentation at the Annecy Festival in France.
The directors were selected to feature on a project dubbed Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, a Disney Plus original series of animated films set to premiere on the streaming platform 'Mouse House" in late 2022.
The project draws inspiration from the continent’s diverse histories and cultures with the aim of bringing together a group of rising animation talents from six African nations through sci-fi and fantasy stories.
Ng'endo issued a statement expressing her excitement at the project "Woo look at our work. [I'm super happy] to have made it as one of the 10 directors. Congratulations everyone,".
The films will roughly be ten minutes long each and will be released as Disney Originals worldwide.
Out of the 15 shortlisted projects, the final films selected were Ahmed Teilab (Egypt), Simangaliso Sibaya and Malcolm Wope (South Africa), Terence Maluleke and Isaac Mogajane (South Africa), Ng’endo Mukii (Kenya), Shofela Coker (Nigeria), Nthato Mokgata and Terence Neale (South Africa), Pious Nyenyewa and Tafadzwa Hove (Zimbabwe), Tshepo Moche (South Africa), Raymond Malinga (Uganda) and Lesego Vorster (South Africa).
Ng'endo Mukii line of work focuses on relationships, the separation between perception and reality, and the use of moving image to represent unspoken truths.
She also has received accolades from her well-known film called Yellow Fever such as the Silver Hugo for Best Animated Short, 49th Chicago International Film Festival, USA October 2013 and a Special Mention at the 59th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany May 2013.
She joins her fellow colleague, Wanuri Kanuri, whose film entitled The Camel Racer was selected for the Walt Disney story lab five years ago.
Kanuri's piece of work was a part of the four features and four TV series triggerfish selected for the benchmark of the company's story lab.
She started her work with Disney with a two-week trip to Disney’s headquarters in Burbank‚ California‚ where they received mentorship from key studio and television executives.
