Jim Chuchu

Jim Chuchu (born 7 August 1982) is a Kenyan film director, photographer, singer-songwriter and visual artist. He first came to attention as a member of Kenyan music group Just A Band[1] and subsequently as director of Kenyan LGBT film Stories of Our Lives.[2]

Jim Chuchu
Born (1982-08-07) 7 August 1982
Nairobi, Kenya
OccupationDirector, photographer, singer-songwriter, visual artist, record producer
Years active2006–present
Musical career
InstrumentsVocals, guitar, synthesizer, sequencer, sampler
Associated actsJust a Band, Adeiyu
Websitewww.jimchuchu.com

Career

After leaving college in 2006, where he studied telecommunications,[3] Chuchu began his career as a graphic designer, working in advertising. He quit his job to become a freelance graphic designer in late 2006.[4][5]

2006-2012: Early career

In 2008, Chuchu co-founded Just A Band together with fellow members Bill "Blinky" Sellanga and Dan Muli, whom he had met while studying at the Kenyatta University.[6] Jim performed multiple duties in the band, including co-producing the band's first three studio albums, Scratch to Reveal, 82 and Sorry for the Delay, creating graphic art for the band and directing many of the band's videos[7] - including "Ha-He" which spawned viral hit Makmende, causing the video to be subsequently described as Kenya's first viral internet meme by the Wall Street Journal, CNN and Fast Company.[8][9]

In 2012, Chuchu co-founded The Nest Collective, a multidisciplinary art space and collective in Nairobi.[10]

In March 2013, Chuchu produced and released Imaginary Chains as pseudonymous act Adeiyu. One of the EP singles - Hollow - was featured in the Mercedes Benz Mixed Tape 55.[11] He followed this EP by releasing the single You Can't Break Her Heart in September 2013.[12]

In October 2013, Just A Band announced that Chuchu had left the band to pursue his solo projects.[13] Following his exit, Chuchu then directed his first short film Homecoming as part of the African Metropolis project, which premiered at the 2013 Durban International Film Festival,[14] then went on to screen at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival,[15] and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the Film Festival Locarno and the Seattle International Film Festival in 2014.[16][17][18]

In April 2014, Chuchu's photography series titled Pagans was featured in the 2014 edition of Dak’Art, the 11th Biennale of Contemporary African Art, as part of the Precarious Imaging: Visibility and Media Surrounding African Queerness exhibition in Dakar, Senegal.[19] The show was cancelled a day after its opening by Senegalese authorities, who ruled that future exhibitions addressing the issue of homosexuality must be closed or canceled.[20][21]

2014: Stories of Our Lives

In September 2014, Chuchu released his first feature film, Stories of Our Lives, an anthology of five short films dramatizing true stories of LGBT life in Kenya which he directed as part of The Nest Collective.[22] The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, where it originally ran without credits due to the collective's concerns about the film's reception in Kenya, where homosexuality is illegal. Following the premiere, Chuchu and fellow Nest Collective members George Gachara and Njoki Ngumi opted to reveal their names at the screening and in an interview with Toronto's LGBT newspaper Xtra!.[23] The soundtrack to the film, for which Chuchu produced and performed four songs, was released in late September as a free download.[24]

2014: Pagans

Pagans is a photographic series created by Chuchu that seeks to "[reconstruct] future-past anonymous African deities, their devotees and forgotten religious rites."[25] One untitled work from 2014 depicts "a being with lustrous skin and sculpted muscles [who] looks upwards as fire and feathers emerge from his face."[26] To create the pieces, Chuchu took black and white photographs of individuals, drew and painted additional elements on them, then scanned and digitally altered them.[26]

Several photographs from Pagans were displayed at the exhibition "Precarious Imaging: Visibility and Media Surrounding African Queerness" as part of the 11th Dakar Biennial. The exhibition was one of the first on the African continent to focus on homosexuality.[26] The exhibition was shut down prematurely by the Senegalese government after Muslim fundamentalists who oppose homosexuality in Senegal vandalized the exhibition gallery.[26][27]

Filmography

Feature films

Short films
  • 2013: Homecoming
  • 2013: Dinka Translation
  • 2013: Urban Hunter

Web series

Videography

Group exhibitions

Jim's photography and video works have been exhibited in the following group exhibitions:

  • 2014: "Afropean Mimicry and Mockery", Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt.[28]
  • 2014: "Shifting Africa", Mediations Biennale Poznan, Poland.[29]
  • 2014: "Precarious Imaging", Raw Center for Art, Knowledge and Society, Dakar.[30]
  • 2014: "Future Reflexions: Five Positions of Contemporary African Art", Glasgow[31][32]
  • 2011: "Kudishnyao!" (Just A Band), Rush Arts Gallery (New York) and Goethe-Institut Nairobi[33]
  • 2010: "Mwangalio Tofauti: Nine Photographers from Kenya", Nairobi Gallery[34][35]
  • 2009: "TRNSMSSN:" (Just A Band), Goethe-Institut Nairobi[4]
  • 2009: "Amnesia": Nairobi National Museum.
  • 2008: "24: Nairobi - Walkers and Workers", Goethe-Institut, Nairobi.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs and Singles
  • 2014: Stories of Our Lives: Music from and Inspired by the Film (EP)[24]
  • 2014 Mayonde - "Isikuti Love" (Single)
  • 2014 Jarel - "The Plus Minus Collection" (EP)
  • 2013: Adeiyu - "You Can't Break Her Heart" (Single)[12]
  • 2013: Various Artists - The NEST Presents: Legacy (Compilation EP)[36]
  • 2013: Adeiyu - Imaginary Chains (EP)[12]

Mixtapes and Remix Albums
  • 2011: The Just A Band Boxing Day Special
  • 2011: Kudish: The Sound of Soup

Books
  • Iwalewa: Four Views into Contemporary Africa. Iwalewa Haus, Bayreuth (2013). ISBN 9783000431159.
  • Mwangalio Tofauti” – Nine Photographers from Kenya. Contact Zones NRB, Nairobi (2012). ISBN 978-9966-1553-3-7
  • 24: Nairobi. Kwani Trust, Nairobi (2010). ISBN 996672950-X.

References
  1. Vinograd, Cassandra (24 March 2010). "Kenya Launches Country's First Viral Music Video". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
  2. TIFF 2014 Review: 'Stories of Our Lives' (Anthology Film Asks "If We Are Not Africans, What Are We?"). Indiewire, September 5, 2014.
  3. Jim Chuchu Archived 2014-11-16 at Archive.today. African Lookbook, November 16, 2014.
  4. Interview with Jim Chuchu. African Digital Art, November 16, 2014.
  5. Touching Base. MTV Base, November 16, 2014.
  6. Daily Nation, Lifestyle Magazine, 22 November 2008: More than Just a Band
  7. Forget Hollywood & New York. The future of the music video is in Nairobi. Meet Jim Chuchu.. Dangerous Minds, November 15, 2014.
  8. McKenzie, David. "Kenya's Viral Sensation". CNN. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  9. ‘Kichwateli’ & Other Pleasures of the Kenyan Music Video Scene. Black Film Center/Archive, November 15, 2014.
  10. An interview with director Jim Chuchu. Goethe-Institut, November 16, 2014.
  11. Mixed Tape #55: Strictly Glorious. mb! by Mercedes Benz, November 16, 2014.
  12. Get to Know: Kenyan Fantasy Folk Duo Adeiyu Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine. AfriPOP!, November 16, 2014.
  13. An interview with director Jim Chuchu. Goethe-Institut, November 15, 2014.
  14. African Metropolis. Durban International Film Festival, November 15, 2014.
  15. Five-Title African Short Film Showcase At Toronto International Film Festival. Indiewire, November 16, 2014.
  16. Homecoming. Santa Barbara International Film Festival, November 15, 2014.
  17. African Metropolis: Homecoming. Festival del film Locarno, November 15, 2014.
  18. HomecomingSH-2014 Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine. IFFR 2014, November 15, 2014.
  19. Gay art show to go on in Senegal. The Art Newspaper, November 16, 2014.
  20. Forbes, Alexander. "Senegal Censors Homosexual Art". ArtNet News. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  21. Senegalese Government Shuts Down Exhibitions Addressing Queer Issues. Hyperallergic, November 15, 2014.
  22. ‘Stories of Our Lives’ Sheds Light on Kenya’s Gay Community. Variety, September 5, 2014.
  23. "Kenyan filmmakers ‘come out’ ahead of TIFF premiere" Archived 2014-09-15 at the Wayback Machine. Xtra!, September 5, 2014.
  24. ‘Stories Of Our Lives,’ An Anthology Film About Queer Life In Kenya Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine. Okayafrica, November 16, 2014.
  25. "Jim Chuchu - Pagans (2014)". Jim Chuchu. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  26. Lord, Catherine, 1949- (3 April 2019). Art & queer culture. Meyer, Richard, 1966- (Revised and updated paperback ed.). London. ISBN 9780714878348. OCLC 1090678799.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  27. "Senegalese Government Shuts Down Exhibitions Addressing Queer Issues". Hyperallergic. 2014-06-06. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  28. Afropean Mimicry & Mockery in Theatre, Performance & Visual Arts. Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt a.M, November 16, 2014.
  29. Shifting Africa. Kulturzentrum Faust, November 15, 2014.
  30. Potts, Andrew. "Senegal to host gay art exhibition in May despite criminalizing gay sex". Gay Star News. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  31. Future Reflexions Exhibition Jelili Atiku, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Dennis Feser and Jim Chuchu. Daily Record, November 15, 2014.
  32. Future Reflexions Exhibition. The Arches, November 16, 2014.
  33. Video: Just A Band’s ‘Kudishnyao!’ Art Exhibit. Okayafrica, November 16, 2014.
  34. Contact Zones NRB. Goethe-Institut Kenya, November 16, 2014.
  35. Taking Photography in Kenyan to the Next Level. Art Matters, November 16, 2014.
  36. Kenyan Pop Songs Revisited + Interview With The Legacy Project’s Jarel Nduba. Okayafrica, November 16, 2014.
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