Finally, all five episodes of Walking Forward are available to watch online and we see creative entrepreneur Ndinomholo Ndilula meeting some of Namibia’s most incredible minds and talents who share what they do to not only walk through a global pandemic, but to walk forward into an unknown and thrilling future.
Walking Forward is a documentary web series produced by Collectives Productions (#LANDoftheBRAVEfilm, Another Sunny Day, Dead River) and features creatives from casting, fashion, music, visual arts and dance industries.
The docuseries follows the model of iconic investigative journalist TV programs, specifically leaning on the South African Carte Blanche and look behind the scenes of these cultural subsectors and showcases those who took the restrictions that life in COVID-19 times stipulates and turned it into an opportunity.
Presenter Ndilula says although COVID-19 has revealed the critical flaws in Namibia’s creative ecosystem, it has also reinforced how synonymous the characteristics of ingenuity and dogged persistence are to the Namibian creative worker and the creative work environment.
“When cinemas, theatres, clubs, dance halls and comedy clubs were shut around the world, it was evident that the status quo would not hold. On the ground, Covid caused production processes to stall, which halted support service functions and destabilized the distribution processes that had for decades made up this status quo,” he says. “Whilst it is a deep calamity that continues to take lives around the world, Covid presented emerging creative centres, such as Windhoek is, with the opportunity to reevaluate their development activities in order to take into account the re-engineering, retooling and reconfiguring necessary for such creative centres to survive and to thrive in the new normal.”
Through Walking Forward Ndilula says he was offered the opportunity to delve into Windhoek’s creative ecosystem and explore how a small sample of creative organizations and individuals are maintaining their resilience during a global pandemic.
Producer Tim Huebschle says in a nutshell, the idea is to understand the impact COVID-19 had and continues to have on the arts & cultural industries, but instead of lamenting the reality, Walking Forward tell stories of hope, stories of finding a creative way to deal with the situation, stories that celebrate those who keep on walking forward.
Walking Forward stars Kulan Ganes (Casting Agent / Pencilled Casting), Slick Upindi (Stand-up Comedian / Free Your Mind), Eva-Maria Manchen (Fashion Designer / Katharina Karl), Heino Manchen (Manufacturing / Katharina Karl), Leena Shipwata (Model / Leena Shipwata Modelling Academy), Galilei Njembo (Classical Music Student), Jackson Wahengo (Musician), Victoria Hailapa (Production Manager / Penduka Namibia), Andy Diergaardt (Acting Director / Penduka Namibia), Gina Figueira (Curator / StartArt Gallery), Nikhita Winkler (Choreographer / Nikhita Winkler Dance Theatre) and Stanley Mareka (Dance Lecturer / Equipped Dance Academy).
All five episodes of Walking Forward are available to watch on YouTube.
The series is supported by the Namibia Film Commission and Bank Windhoek.
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