Interviews

Introducing: Tokolosh and Other Behemoth Creatures

20 December 2020

Tokolosh and Other Behemoth Creatures

Interviews

Introducing: Tokolosh and Other Behemoth Creatures

20 December 2020

Representing the Immersive project Tokolosh and Other Behemoth Creatures at the 2021 edition of CineMart are Kirstin Lee Grey (Creator and Producer), Antoinette Engel (Producer) as well as Tsoku Maela (Director). Grey and Engel have worked closely together previously at Electric South, a VR/360 storytelling company in Cape Town, and share a passion and expertise for combining storytelling tradition from South Africa and the continent with new cinematic technologies.

Grey: “I have been playing around with this project since 2011. Initially I would have liked it to be a TV series, however I always felt something was missing. When VR presented itself as a medium it was as if all the dots just connected themselves. African storytelling is invariably steeped in oral tradition and VR being first person viewing provided a perfect vehicle for this.” She was most recently inspired by Zero Days VR, an immersive documentary project from 2017 produced by US company Scatter, as well as The Lost Botanist, a VR puzzle-adventure from 2019 produced by Eden Labs from South Africa.

 

Kirstin Lee Grey

Tokolosh and Other Behemoth Creatures

The story is a meeting of popular horror stories – African “folk-gore” of the kind that might have been heard by Grey around childhood campfires or at sleepovers at her grandmother’s house – with the VR medium. It follows a couple on a desperate search for their missing daughter in a strange town, harassed by a tokolosh, the evil mythical creature in this haunted tale. The viewer plays a stranger who helps to find a way through the chaos of this frantic search. It aims to be playful and fun however, based on childlike imagination and all the enthusiasm and creativity that brings with it.

This will be Grey’s first experience at IFFR where the team will be looking for new collaborators, but not being able to attend physically is of course a disappointment. “Being inside that energy and connecting with like-minded individuals in the industry is second to none”, sasy Grey. Offering alternatives and finding solutions however will make sure that the experience is more than worthwhile: “The CineMart team have been doing such a great job of keeping us involved in the process and equipping us with the tools to be effective online, so I do look forward to the process.”

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