In her second and final report on the Sheffield Doc/Fest, filmmaker Veronica McKenzie meets up with two inspiring Kenyan women filmmakers to discuss their groundbreaking documentary Truck Mama on the elusive woman who drives a truck in South Africa on a notoriously dangerous route.
During my time at the recent Sheffield Doc/Fest, it is clear it is a must attend event for emerging and established filmmakers vying for the attention of commissioners, broadcasters and buyers seeking original ideas.
Such is the cast that Kenyan filmmaker Zippy Nyaruri and her co-director Peggy Mbiyu (pictured above, from left to right), came to Sheffield for the first time with her fascinating project Truck Mama – a documentary on the life of a female truck driver traversing the notorious North Corridor bypass dubbed the Devil’s Highway.
Nyaruri, a former journalist, moved to South Africa and started documenting the female street vendors known as Mama Emerres who service the truckers transporting goods between the landlocked countries. When she heard rumours about female truckers, dismissed by some male truckers as a myth, Nyaruri knew there was a story to be told. I asked what the true story was.
“I wanted to find this woman who was strong and brave enough to ride this truck thousands of miles across very dangerous territory,” Nyaruri explains.
With her co-director Mbiyu, she spent months staking out pit stops and motels in search for the elusive female truck driver until they tracked down Evelyn who drove a truck and was eight months pregnant. Excited and relieved, they discovered that Evelyn already had a child who travelled in the truck with her. “When she found herself pregnant with her second child she risked losing her job,” says Mbiyu
According to Nyaruri, Truck Mama is about one woman’s quest to be independent and support herself and her family, challenging her family’s wishes and society’s notion of what an African woman is supposed to be.
The project has been selected by the Doc Station at Berlinale which gives filmmakers access to industry mentors. Newly launched Kenyan initiative Docubox provided pre-production support and enabled Mbiyu and Nyaruri to travel to Sheffield.
“We hope to raise finance and secure distribution for the film and hopefully go into production later this year,” says Nyaruri.
Given the buzz about the film, I’m sure it will be an insightful and interesting addition to next year’s slate at Sheffield Doc Fest.