IOL had the opportunity to ask Menzi a series of questions on Instagram, where he opened up about his journey, the challenges of directing, and his creative process. Below are his responses.

Q&A with Menzi Mzimela

Kennedy Phungela: What inspired you to pursue directing?

Menzi Mzimela: I’ve always loved movies since I was a kid. But directing was never an option until I was 28. I knew deep down it was something I wanted to do but I genuinely didn’t think it was a possibility. So, I expressed my passion for movies a lot, but I never really openly spoke about the fact that I wanted to direct until my late 20s.

But as a kid, I was inspired by Tarantino. Like every other male director. But I also enjoyed a lot of black cinemas. Belly, Paid in Full, and a lot of comedies. But Pulp Fiction is the first time I felt like maybe I could direct. For some reason, the movie felt tangible. Like I could touch it. Usually, movies are like magical experiences, but there was something about Pulp Fiction that felt accessible to me. I’m not sure how to explain it.

KP: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from your experiences so far?

MM: Directing exposes a lot of your weaknesses. Being honest with yourself and what you need to fix to be the best director is probably the most important lesson. If you struggle to articulate yourself, directing will expose that. If you struggle to lead, directing will expose that. You can’t run away from it if you want to do a good job. As dramatic as it sounds, I grew and matured as a person after directing Kites. You have to acknowledge and work on your weaknesses. It puts you in a position where you have no choice, or you’ll just collapse your movie.

KP: How do you approach storytelling when working with new material?

MM: Kites is my first feature film, and I was lucky enough to write it as well, so I already knew the vision for my story very early in the process. Planning is your friend at the end of the day. If you can pre-visualize your movie in a treatment, you win a huge chunk of the battle. So, I plan to take pre-production very seriously. Kites wasn’t an easy movie to pull off. We had 6 days to shoot it. It wouldn’t have worked out if we didn’t plan properly.

KP: How do you collaborate with actors to get the performance you envision?

MM: I like to give an actor some autonomy over their characters. Because after a while, they will understand the character better than me. And I always feel like it’s important for the actors to enjoy the characters they are portraying. So, it’s always good to give them a little freedom to explore what we’ve written for them. I feel like when you give an actor a little bit of ownership over their character, they become more invested, and you get the best out of them. They take their contribution to the project a little more serious

KP: Can you describe your process for developing a visual style for a project?

MM: I research like a crazy person, but the style is informed by the story. Kites is an edgy, high-stress comedy. So the style needs to inform that. I watch movies that are similar and study the decisions they make for those movies, and I figure out how to make the right decisions for my movie. Then I create a dense director’s treatment, breaking down almost every visual element of my movie and the context behind it.

The director’s treatment for me is one of the most important elements of the pre-production process. It’s a make or break for how seriously people will take you as a director. It’s an indicator of how serious you are about your vision.

KP: What challenges have you faced as a young director, and how have you overcome them?

MM: Being a leader was a hard challenge. Just believing in myself and my ideas and always trusting that I’m making the right decision. I would say trusting myself was the hardest challenge. Directing requires confidence. You have to be able to impose your vision onto other people, and somehow, they must be okay with it. You can’t doubt yourself, but you also need to have a vision and ideas worth working towards.

KP: Which directors or filmmakers have influenced your style?

MM: I would say, Tarantino, the Safdie brothers, Tony Scott, Hype Williams, and Sean Baker.

KP: How do you balance creativity with practical constraints like budget or time?

MM: I used to be a vlogger and a YouTuber, so I’ve never really had the resources. So, finding solutions for budget issues felt natural to us. I just always knew how to address an issue without compromising the quality of the work. My shooting style was deliberately fluid to be able to pivot and problem-solve in a way that fits the style. A good example of this is how my supervising director and producer Kgosana and Juvais suggested I use a vlog camera as part of the shooting style. But it was also a good way to help reset the line and cost-effectively establish scenes and scenarios. It also ended up being a strong storytelling tool.

We also did a lot of location shapeshifting. So, we’ll turn one location into three locations with production design and lighting.

KP: How do you handle creative differences with your team or producers?

MM: Trust, I just always had to remind myself that I’m collaborating with experienced professionals who care about the work as much as I do. I had to remind myself that I’m surrounded by people who want me to succeed. So, I have to trust them.

Menzi Mzimela also mentioned that his debut feature film, Kites will be available for streaming on Showmax starting April 25.

IOL

Kennedy Phungela

Menzi Mzimela reveals what inspired his directorial journey in exclusive Instagram Q&A