Critical to the approach of Hopkins and Kamicha is the decision to make their position as filmmaker and outsider explicit, rather than trying to render it invisible. The work tries to foreground both the process of the filmmaking itself and the complexities of collaborative filming with a white person. At the same time the piece has a utopic ambition to focus on an activity (cycling) that, in some small but powerful instances can challenge monolithic identities such as ethnicity and race. 


 

THIKA ROAD MAD BOYS_UNTIL DEATH DO US PART_WAZUNGU WAUSI (BLACK WHITE MEN)

(with John Kamicha)  

'Thika Road mad boys_Until death do us part_Wazungu wausi (Black white men)' is the first iteration of the experimental documentary project The Bike Gang by the artists Sam Hopkins and John Kamicha. They engage with the emerging phenomenon of a bicycle subculture in Nairobi. In trying to represent this scene, they avoid the typical features of documentary film, keeping the process of filming as open to different developments as possible.
 

TOGETHER WITH: JOHN KAMICHA (CO-ARTIST) MEDIUM: 2 CHANNEL VIDEO INSTALLATION CONTEXT: FUTURE AFRICA VISIONS IN TIME (FAVT) EXHIBTION SUPPORTED BY: BAYREUTH ACADEMY OF ADVANCED AFRICAN STUDIES AND IWALEWAHAUS YEAR:  2015

samhopkins.org