Absolut Celebrates Africa's Creative Superheroes

Egg Films’ Sunu has directed Africa On Fire, NativeVML’s follow-up to the Cannes Gold-winning Absolut One Source campaign.

 

Shot in Ghana, the four-minute film portrays creative revolutionaries as the superheroes they are - with their art form as their superpower. South African rappers Khuli Chana and Sho Madjozi star as The Dragon and The Rain Queen respectively, while photographers Trevor Stuurman (SA), Fabrice Monteiro (Senegal-Benin) and Osborne Macharia (Kenya) are The Explorer; The Iron Warrior; and The Eye.

 

The original One Source campaign birthed a SAMA and Metro FM-nominated music video, an iTunes SA number one single, and a bestselling album that became a war-cry for the continent’s creative revolution. One Source won Gold in Entertainment at Cannes Lions; was the most awarded campaign at The Bookmarks; and made Sunu and Kerry Hosford the top ranked director and producer respectively at this year’s Loerie Awards, where it won two Golds and eleven awards in total. More importantly, One Source helped Absolut reclaim its leadership position as the number one selling vodka in South Africa.

 

The new film is promoting One Source Live, a festival of African creativity.  On 24 March 2018, leading African creative revolutionaries in music, fashion and art will gather in Johannesburg for a spectacular all-day live event with multiple stages, performances and collaborations geared at re-writing Africa’s story.

 

Behind the campaign is a call for all Africans to join the creative revolution and change the way African creativity is represented online. This aims to replace the dominance of curio images with a true reflection of African creativity, with more images of contemporary African art. People can visit OneSourceLive.com to get involved. 

 

Iris Le Berg, global marketing manager at The Absolut Company, says: “Absolut has a long history of supporting artists and standing up for the rights of communities; whether it be LGBT or female power/rights. One Source Live underscores our belief that creatives are the real leaders who can rewrite and recreate the kind of change that modern Africa is poised to own. We are bringing these creative revolutionaries together to highlight Africa as the creative engine of the world. One Source Live is a movement that promotes a proud and authentic African identity by reminding people that we all come from One Source.”

 

As Khuli raps in One Source, “Africa no longer riding shotgun / Africa ain’t no jungle / I think it’s time we made them listen / Change is here.”

 

Sunu went straight onto Africa On Fire on his return from Hollywood, where he directed his first TV series episode on the People’s Choice-nominated TV series Madam Secretary, with Tea Leoni.

 

“What a time to be alive,” says Sunu. “Zimbabwe is on the rise. My country. My soul. My first TV directing gig for Madam Secretary is out. And finally I am so excited to share Africa On Fire, a project about creative freedom and emancipation. I have dreamt of seeing African superheroes on the screen since I was a child. Here we go! Here's to freedom and our beautiful continent.”