Esther Beukes Aspires To Be a Top Director

The MultiChoice Talent factory (MTF) is in full swing and freelance film-maker Esther Beukes is one of three lucky Namibians taking part in the programme currently running in Zambia.

Last week, aspiring producer and visual effects artist Toivo Ashivudhi shared his journey in television and what he envisions for his future. This time round, the bubbly Beukes tells The Weekender what she’s all about and what the Namibian film industry can expect from her in the days to come.

With a certificate in television and film production, the 26-year-old has dreams of becoming a world-renowned director with a vision of an original African food and travel documentary, showcasing culture and diversity, in mind.

As young as she is, Beukes has been in the industry for over a decade doing make-up for music videos.

“I later moved into doing production design and styling during the time I ran a fashion blog called ‘Don’t You Want To Gimme That?’ along with a fashion event called Esther’s Closet Exchange,” she says.

Beukes later underwent mentorship under seasoned Namibian film-maker Oshosheni Hivelua and delved deeper into casting and producing. This led to taking a film-making course at Afda in Cape Town.

MTF academy director Berry Lwando says the project aims to ignite Africa’s creative spark and aspires to be part of the solution to grow the skill base that will unite the African film industry into one professional segment.

The Windhoek city girl mentions that life in Zambia has had a few surprises and challenges. “Zambia was quite a big culture shock; life here is very different and I’ve had an interesting time learning about the culture and understanding the differences,” she says, adding that the MTF is an exciting journey and throughout the past six months, she has gained priceless information she wants to share with other hopefuls.

Beukes also knows the importance of marketing and networking in this industry. This is a segment she would like to focus on in future. “I’m hoping I can create valuable connections with other film-makers across the region to be able to collaborate in the near future.

“I would like us to get to a point where we are collaborating more with each other as well as within the southern region. Creating content that can work across the board,” Beukes says.

Beukes is certain the MTF will also assist her in gaining the necessary skills to create quality content, package her product well and come up with effective sales strategies.

The multi-talented creative, who is also a hockey player, says she has a fresh approach to problem-solving and is bursting with new ideas on how to tell our stories.

“I look forward to a time where the creative industries will play a major role in driving Africa’s economy and in the future employing many more young creatives.”

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