Muhadi Muhadi
Women In Motion Spotlight
Muhadi Muhadi, also known as Idah, is a documentary director, plant mom and co-founder of Queermunity TV, a creative platform thats mission is to uplift queer creative entrepreneurs. Her documentary short, directed alongside Jordan van der Westhuizen, entitled “Radical Self Acceptance: The Truth About Homophobia + The Bible ” was screened at the Girls in Film x Encounters Documentary Festival in June of this year.
Idah joins the Zoom meeting promptly. Their background is adorned with touches of healthy, green houseplants — a sure nod to their journey with gardening that they do not hesitate to share on Instagram. We’re greeted by a warm smile, a bright yellow headscarf and eyeshadow that compliments it. Their grounded energy is graciously evident in the way they articulate themselves. Brief but pleasant greetings are exchanged before we get into the thick of things.
Right off the bat, how do you define yourself as a creative?
A multi-disciplinarian. So, I’m really into different things, especially visually. I have always been into photography from a very young age. And I only realised this in varsity. Photography is what I’m into, videography as well because it’s what I studied, painting, drawing, sculpting …
You co-founded a digital archive that dedicates itself to everything made by and starring the queers of the global South called Queermunity TV. A dedication towards archiving normally stems from a place of having a passion for storytelling and story preserving. So, have you always been interested in the intricacies of storytelling? How did that emerge?
As kids, being raised by your guardians, you pose for pictures when you’re younger so you can see yourself as a small human being [later on]. That’s when it started; reflecting back on those memories and how I’ve always been interested in taking pictures of other people as well. It was a hobby. I find taking portraits of people and allowing for them to see themselves in a beautiful way that they would enjoy being reflected back with is a part of why I do enjoy visual storytelling. Having co-founded this company with my partner, we really just wanted to share more original, African queer stories. Because, when I search for the African queer archive, you can only find those files at, let’s say, the GALA archive — they’re not publicly accessible so that anyone that wants to search for that can find inspiration or see elders that have lived before our time to feel affirmed in their own existence. That’s what I think is missing. Mirroring each other as queer African people is what I think this archive will become. At least, that’s my intention.
And I’m really happy you guys are doing that. Because the gap, the gap, the gap!
The erasure, the erasure, the erasure!
You and Jay founded Queermunity TV in response to recognising a gap in the industry. Opportunities and support for queer creatives are few and far in between. Was there a moment or an experience that you had or that you both shared that triggered everything? Was there a moment or was it a decision that you two came to?
A little bit of a back story: how we came about creating this entity was because we recognised our strengths. I’m more of a visual person, and Jay is more of a sound person. So the audio-visual medium came together to create a picture, a motion picture … and also sharing similar interests in terms of music and visual storytelling. That’s where we’ve built our relationship in sharing what we want to share, and sharing our own story through our inspirations.
Being in this industry can be a bit discouraging at times. You can get a lot of no’s, delayed projects, it’s a series of ups and downs. It’s really hard! How do you normally navigate how these ups and downs affect your wellbeing? Especially because when creatives undergo a project or create something, it becomes a piece of them. And you can’t always let the bad things associated with this creation affect you to the point where it gets you down. Do you have a means in which you recognise that your creation is a piece of you, but also offer yourself enough distance from the thing?
Let me tell you! So, in our grad year, we had the TV head that we pitched to. And we were told that our grad project — which was queer focused — was something that wouldn’t be commissioned in the real world because there is no audience for it. And this was a cis white man who was the head of our department. Regardless of what he said, we went ahead with it — which is another story for another day because wow, it was a sore time. But having someone who’s been in the industry telling me, a young queer Black filmmaker, that the stories I want to tell about queer people and about myself wouldn’t be commissioned was very heartbreaking. You don’t want to hear that from your teachers or your lecturers or your TV heads. You don’t! It’s probably the worst thing you could ever share with a student. But we had to get through that. I personally had many breakdowns, feeling like I couldn’t do it, feeling I couldn’t own a company that is going to be for queer people or tell my own stories. Because a lot of the time in this industry, you’re told to work underneath another production company which doesn’t tell the stories you want to tell. But because it’s going to put some money in your pocket, you’d rather sacrifice your artistry for something that is going to pay your rent or cover whatever it is you need to do. I’ve had to make really tough decisions along this journey since grad to this moment. And, you know, that person didn’t affect our willingness to still create what we wanted to create because today we have our own queer, Black-owned company! We’re telling our stories, we’re gathering our queer audience and things are changing in a very fast way. That [experience] was a testament to where I was: not believing that a queer company can exist. But it does today.
That’s insane! But I think it also goes to show that, in this country, the people who are at the top and have the ability to uplift younger voices are tapped out from our realities and our stories as well. So we need to create our own avenues to tell those stories. And honestly, there are some stories that we no longer want to hear, no shade to them.
No shade! We’ve heard a lot of cis people stories. I saw a tweet that said they’re not enjoying that every new series we see is a Zulu or Xhosa one, and I’m like, “that’s very valid” because a lot of the funding goes there. There’s not a lot of support for other things, for younger queer people as well that want to show on bigger platforms. You normally have to get international funding to be seen.
You offer a digital space for queer people to put themselves out there. And a lot of representation politics can come into play. What is something you always keep in mind when representing people?
You need to very much consider how people want to be shown. I’ve been coming across this question a lot amongst the conversations I do have in this industry — even with people who are a part of the audience have asked me this question and … I don’t have an answer for it. I honestly feel that the most important thing to do is to very much consider if the queer person we want to put on wants to be visible or not. There’s a lot of talented queer people but visibility isn’t the privilege we do have, especially from the different demographics we are placed in. I grew up from a background that’s different from everyone, and who I am now definitely rebels against the way I was raised. Yeah. I think considering how queer people want to be shown is the first thing to consider when telling queer stories.
Queermunity TV also showcases and sells art prints. Its print collection is made up exclusively of pop art, which I thought was so interesting because pop art emerged as a reaction to traditional fine art and it leaned into elements of mass culture, pop culture and exhibits this comic book and advertisement-esque visual style. Is there a particular reason as to why Queermunity TV showcases art of this style?
I’ve always been attracted to that visual style for some reason. I enjoy cartoonised and not-so-realist art. To be honest, there was no particular reason as to why we went from that style. We were just trying it out with the pictures that we had to see and experiment. It was not something we had done before, especially with selling prints. It’s very new and, when being a creative entrepreneur, you have to dabble in different avenues of creativity so that was another source of inspiration — just trying it out. And looking into the history, I noticed it’s been a lot of cis, white men that have expressed from this medium. It is not the inspiration, by the way! But yeah, we’re just trying something different. And this next collection that is coming is more where we want it to be. It expresses more. Check us out on Instagram — we’re coming through with our updates.
What is your proudest moment as a creative thus far?
Our proudest moment [as a company] and my own proudest would be when we got to screen with Girls in Film and Encounters in June. We had a community screening and everybody received it so well. Just hearing how people received the messages and how they see themselves in what we shared was really heart opening and affirming; we’re really audio-visual storytellers and we should just continue doing what we’re doing. As well as screening with OTV — OTV is Open Television, they’re based in Chicago. They do [screenings] with queer young filmmakers in Johannesburg, which was really cool. I was really afraid of speaking publicly in panel discussions and all these things! It was so new. Being a camera person, you think you will always be behind the scenes, but owning your own work, you have to speak about it and share what your sentiments are to engage with the audience. That was a big, big moment so far in my career.
How was it working on a project that was created during the COVID-19 lockdown, especially as your debut project?
It was very interesting because how we went about it was that we … there was this group on Whatsapp that Jay had made with different queer people, and one of them had sent this link to this opportunity to a self documentation project where we could create anything, like, literally anything that is of our expression. And I think a lot of it was video format. So we submitted this 10 minute doccie that was completed in … was it three days? We made it in three days. From beginning to end. It’s been a shock to see that this is actually going places, you know? And different people are receiving it from different parts of the world, which is great. It’s unreal. I kind of dissociate from thinking about the amount of eyes that have watched this, it’s amazing!
What is something that you’re really looking forward to? Whether it’s as an individual or related to Queermunity TV? Or both?
Ooh! I can’t wait to get into music videos. That’s something I really want to do — like, creatively expressing in that way, and not so much sticking to just filmmaking short documentaries or long form work. I want to do more of the musical, visual things and learn more and up my skill in my own department. I want to work with other queer people locally, internationally. We’re so talented. We just need money and resources, and then we can just kill it! But yes, that’s what I’m looking forward to — within the next six months. I have these bigger visions, but these bigger visions need years. But for now, I’m excited to just be in the play field and grow in that sense.