From the release:
London-based production studio Blinkink proudly welcomes Ng’endo Mukii to their roster for global representation. This comes off the back of Boston-based Mukii’s Annie Award-winning collaboration with the studio on Disney+ anthology series, ‘Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire’.
Executive produced by Oscar-winning director Peter Ramsey, Variety Magazine referred to ‘Kizazi Moto’ as a “watershed moment” for African animation. The anthology introduces 10 diverse stories from across the continent, including Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
Drawing from her own Kenyan heritage, Ng’endo wrote and directed the final episode, ‘Enkai’, which was awarded ‘Best TV/Media – Limited Series’ at the 51st Annie Awards. The 11-minute short was produced by Blinkink’s long-form division, Blink Industries, in collaboration with South African studio Triggerfish Animation. ‘Enkai’ is a culmination of several years of Ng’endo’s exploration into mixed media filmmaking. She wanted to work specifically with Blink to create a mesmerising experience of CGI, 2D and stop-motion animation worlds, all seen through the eyes of a goddess child.
Ng’endo’s work focuses on relationships, the separation between perception and reality, and the use of moving images to represent unspoken truths. Identity also plays an important role in her creative process and inspiration.
In 2015, she gave a talk entitled ‘Film Taxidermy and Re-Animation’ at the Design Indaba Conference, proposing the use of animation as a means of re-humanising the ‘indigenous’ image, a people whose ‘real’ image is burdened by stereotypes of being the ‘Other’. Similar themes are explored in her critically acclaimed animated documentary ‘Yellow Fever’, which reflects on Western influences on African beauty.
Ng’endo is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and holds a Master of Arts in Animation from the Royal College of Art. She is an alumni of Berlinale Talents, the distinguished Urucu Media REALNESS Screenwriter’s Residency, and the Goethe Institute Bahia Vila Sul Artists Residency. She’s also a Professor of the Practice at SMFA at TUFTS University in Boston and a writer on Netflix’s first African animated series, Supa Team 4.