Saigon. Beautiful woman.

Dusk on the Saigon River.

Saigon. Karaoke pastimes.

Vietnamese Dong

Phenom Penh, Cambodia. S21 former prison and torture site during Pol Pot era. Man examines a hollowed out cell.

Mae Sot, Thai-Burma Border. Colorful town.

Mombasa, Kenya. Two young girls chat and stroll.

Hanoi. Whispered conversations in a Buddhist temple.

Delays at the Saigon airport.

Saigon. Nigerian football players say a prayer before their match.

Saigon. 1AM. Street vendor rests while waiting for rowdy costumers in the pack packer district

Rift Valley, Kenya. Man takes in the view.

Central Province, Kenya. Man shows off his decorated motorbike.

Trailer of documentary I worked on at Africa 24 Media in celebration of Tanzania’s 50th Anniversary of Independence. The sheer amount of old footage and stills in the A24 archive is staggering.

“If you run, the beast catches; if you stay, the beast eats.” This is the motto of Wafa and Amirah Tajdin – producers and artists, a filmmaking duo extraordinaire. The carpe diem attitude is one of two sisters who eat, sleep and dream film.

Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, with stints in Dubai and South Africa, they describe themselves as culturally schizophrenic.  “Our ethnic and cultural roots are part Arab, a mixture of Omani/Swahili, and Indian,” reports Amirah proudly.

Both sisters confess to having an unhealthy love for anything remotely related to art, film, journalism, music or photography. Their taste for the gaudy, raw, nomadic and untold stories of urban spaces make their films visually colourful and intellectually stimulating.

“Artistically speaking,“ says Amirah, "we share a love affair with all that is on the fringes and transient. Being of mixed lineage, we both identify with these themes, and that definitely informs our work in every way.”

Fuelled by a passion for being creative, Amirah has put her artistic talents to work in a wide variety of fields. She graduated from Rhodes University with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Photography) in South Africa. She is the creative force behind the sisters’ first short film, Florescent Sin, is about a drag queen having a nervous breakdown in a Nairobi train station.

“I write and direct, but mainly elaborate… Human stories. I love social misfits, exploring clichés and trying to re-present them to the world. I am relatively new to the film industry, but have been exploring these themes through my photography and video art over the years. I like fiction and the element of playing and pretending on the silver screen. I would like to get into creative documentaries one day too. When the time is right!”

Wafa also graduated from Rhodes University with a Bachelor of Journalism. Her passion for journalism and telling the stories that matter led her onto the path of documentary filmmaking, with an emphasis on producing human-interest stories from angles that are innovative, interesting and relevant to Africa in particular.

Africa What’s Your Story?Former social media initiative that I was proud to be apart of. Unfortunately it has since been shut down.