BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MARLKENS – Qibho Intalektual and his filming crew added a bit of mystery at the Luju Food Lifestyle Festival as they filmed a music video for one of the artist’s new songs.
The poet and Hip Hop artist took the opportunity presented by the colorful and flavourful Luju Festival to shoot the music video because he felt that the alignment between the song and the festival was artistically serendipitous.
“The name of the song is called ‘Stayela’ (style). Luju is about style – not just clothing style, but style of food, style of fashion and over lifestyle. We decided to do it there because we felt that Luju is the magnum opus of style,” said Qibho.
Speaking on the experience of filming, Qibho highlighted the looks of mystery they received from revelers at the Luju Food and Lifestyle festival.
“For me, what was really nice was seeing the reactions of people as most reacted with looks of mystery as they could see what we were doing but they weren’t exactly sure what was happening, the reactions were priceless,” added Qibho.
“It was also thrilling to have that ‘trick up my sleeve’ effect where you know something that other people don’t know about, so there was a little bit of that as we were going around shooting the video”, added Qibho.
Speaking on the logistics, the artist expressed gratitude to the organisers of the Luju Food and Lifestyle Festival, primarily House on Fire.
“With the help of House on Fire, we were able to use the space to record. They did not just give us the space but they supported us with their technical teams as well in different aspects as we were shooting,” added Qibho.
“The space was very receptive, more especially because of its management, Jiggs Thorne and them, and how they assisted us. It really made our work so much easier – we didn’t have to scout for a location or set up and we didn’t need to scout for extras,” revealed Qibho.
“We also had a lot of assistance from Dala Spaces, which also made our job easy,” added Qibho on the process of shooting the video at the Luju Festival.
“A notable mention must be made for Philani Mpanza of Sgonian Republik,” said Qibho when speaking about the wardrobe for the video shoot.
In as much as the filming of the first-of-its-kind music video in the Kingdom of Eswatini, Qibho expressed disappointment that his financing for the video fell through.
“I ended up going into my savings to finance the shoot,” said Qibho on the challenges he experienced. He mentioned that it is unfortunate for stakeholders to be complacent when it comes to the importance of art in the country, adding that it takes a lot from an artist’s family and team when other stakeholders in the industry don’t play their part.
The video was filmed by Phephile Sibanyoni and Sakhile Gumbi, directed by Sakhile Gumbi and Qiniso “Qibho Intalektual” Motsa who also doubles as the Executive Producer. In spite of the challenges, the “Stayela” music video was filmed with overwhelming success. According to Qibho Intalektual, the video is set to be released in November this year.
