June 21, 2010 – Kudos to Film Director, Wanuri Kahiu, for making it into Vogue Italia! Making Kenyans proud! She won an award for Best Short Film in Cannes for Pumzi. From the interview, she comes out as really down to earth in spite of all her achievements. 2010 is your year girl! And it’s just the beginning! Here is the interview…
Style
“Fashion for me is how you feel inside and what is reflected on the outside. So how you move is style and fashionable, it doesn’t have to be something that’s in season, it’s just what really makes you look the best and feel the best.”
Zoom
“I think I’m the black sheep in the family: my mother is a doctor, my father is a business man, they are more conservative in a particular way. But on the other hand, I have an aunt who’s a very famous actress in Kenya, and I have a uncle who’s a scupltor, so maybe some of that came into me and that’s why I’m able to be creative.”
The career
“I always used to create stories. I’ve always like writing, reading. Those kinds of things were fascinating me and later on, at 16, I decided to become a filmaker but in Kenya it was illogical and irrealistic. So my parents wanted me to have a science degree in the University of Warwick in UK but, later on, I earned my postgraduate in directing at the School of Film and Television at the University of California, Los Angeles.”
Wanuri worked on movies like the hollywood Italian Job and Catch a Fire directed by Phillip Noyce: “The person who influenced me was Phillip Noyce. He ispired me and in that film I really learned more than in any film school and I realized what means to work with actors and directing It was my really first training.”
Wanuri’s first movie was From a Whisper, a powerful drama which wons The Best Director at the African Oscar. Her last short movie is Pumzi, an eco-sci-fi and post-apocalyptic film in which water scarcity has extinguished life all over the world. Pumzi won the Independent Movie Awards at Cannes Film Festival. Wanuri is considered the new african Kathryn Bigelow.
Fashion tip
“My fashion tip is to be comfortable, it’s the only way to be yourself. So be comfortable and you’ll be stylish.”
Style Icons
“I hate style icons, because fashion is such an individual thing.”
Favourite designers
“Recently Zigfreda, they have a beautiful collection of clothes, which are hand painted and usually in silk. And you feel so creative and playful and loving.”
Favourite city
“I live between Nairobi and Mombasa becouse Mombasa is right by the beach, it’s so beautiful and the beach are white, glamorous, amazing and quite. But I also need the citylife and Nairobi it’s really the heart of Kenya where everything happens. My office is in the heart of the city center and the citysight is remarkable.”
Shoes
“I prefer to wear heels most times, because they make me feel so grown up.”
Favourite food
“I love desserts.”
Favourite music
“I’m completely inspired by music, I think in past a life I was married to music. I’m inspired by different types of music, by reggae, jazz, african hip hop and R&B and a new mix of music coming out of Kenya.”
Beauty
“Beauty is on the inside, you have the all universe inside of you and if you look deep inside yourself, you’ll find perfection.”
She said
“A woman shouldn’t leave home without eye makeup, even before your clothes, they notice your eyes.”
She hates
“Bottles of water really annoy me, more than anything else because it takes more water to make the bottle than the water inside of the bottle. It’s ridiculous.”
The future
“I’m very hopeful about the future, but knowing that I make a difference myself. I believe that people can plant trees and should conserve, recycle and and re-use things. We have to be careful and sensitive, like in my film Pumzi we have to be the mother of mother nature and if we are not mother of mother nature than mother nature will stop mothering us.”
We love her because
She’s eco-green addicted, environmentally responsible, creative by nature. And she’s proud to be an African indie female director.