The last decade has seen a new wave of creative energy hit South Africa – emanating strongest, perhaps, from the city of gold: Johannesburg. There’s that feeling in Joburg; unmatched in intensity, an energy of grit and determination; a city in which everyone wants to tell their story. A city in which many do, tell their story, without permission. It’s precisely this mood that captivated Allison Swank Owen – originally from the USA – when arriving in the country to do a Masters Degree in African Studies at the University of Cape Town. Allison was brought up in middle America; Missouri, to be exact – and went on to make her way in Chicago and New York, before finding herself making a home in Joburg. For many of us here, the outward trajectory from the country seems to be a mantle upon which our dream careers rest; so it is refreshing and encouraging that the just the opposite trajectory, like for Allison, equally nurtures a dream.
As a leading film-director and producer, Allison cuts an integral form and figure – as she is behind many of the best visual projects that have shaped our contemporary commercial and cinematic landscape in the last few years. Allison’s work feels like calling, with Africa as an essential aspect – although led by a committed awareness by Allison to her own whiteness and privilege. Allison explains, “I produced and directed my high school news program when I was 15. I would spend after-school hours in the editing suite cutting and editing, and so it really started there. I knew I wanted to go to film school when I left high school – and I specialised in editing at first. My first job after college was at a film / tv production company that would make documentaries for The History Channel and National Geographic. That was a really cool start in the industry. It’s not really a straight line – a series of events led me to do a Masters Degree in African Studies at UCT – which honestly should have been called ‘Decolonial Studies’, because the term African studies makes it sound like some sort of anthropological degree. We were talking about knowledge production – and how knowledge about Africa is created and for whom and by whom, and who does it serve. That eventually parled with the gig at OkayAfrica. The Roots had just started this new website – and they were looking for an editor-in-chief. I was the first content editor, back in 2011. Up until that point, I was an editor for TV.” This role would eventually see Allison take up directing – firstly with the web series and mini documentaries.
How then, did Allison find herself at the tip of Africa over a decade ago? She reflects, “I had a mentor in college. He’s a Black American guy, and he taught an African history course. Somehow, I made it all the way through high school in Missouri without ever hearing the word ‘apartheid’ – I had no idea about colonisation – and that should tell you something of the insularity of whiteness, particulary in the states. I was so taken by the personal sacrifices by people in the freedom struggle – and the narratives of people like Ruth First and Dulcie September – and women, specifically, and that professor brought me on a trip to South Africa in 2007. That was the first time I really understood the incredible complexity and beauty of South Africa. I don’t have family here, but somehow some of the most formative parts of my life have been forged here.” It’s one of those experiences – I think – if you get it, then arriving in South Africa is perhaps unmatched in the rawness this country evokes. Particularly in Joburg, where Allison and her husband Travys Owen have expanded their respective careers and creative scope. I ask Allison, curiously, what this trajectory from New York to Joburg meant for her career – particularly when most envision the inverse of that route as the only way to ‘make it’. Allison says, “New York is really over-saturated, and I had ended up coming back to South Africa for December. I got a job opportunity, and I didn’t even think twice about staying – I was just following the freedom of artistic expression that I was feeling here. There’s space here for artists and people to try something – and failing – and then reinventing and then popping up as something else in their evolution, and trying again. There’s space to do that – and confidence and encouragement to do that. I’ve always felt that Joburg is a city of survivors, and there’s something about that depth of expression that is profound.”
Allison’s sincerity for South Africa is a precious thing – and it’s meant she has been welcomed, to make and create alongside people who are now kin. Described as a documentary-style filmmaker, Allison’s execution of this style of story-telling has been translated into beautiful commercial work – a realm that South Africa has been known to remain quite ‘conservative’ in, until recent years; “Every decision I make for a production has to come from a place of authenticity. The hiring is one aspect that really sets the tone for how something will go – as a process – but then finalises its outcome. Most of the casting I do myself, too. And the casting evolves from relationships – from parties, to the dancefloor – other jobs. Every decision at every point has to come from a point of consideration.” There is an opposition of forces within Allison’s career – between her role as director and as producer. With her production company, The Swank Group, its inception was a necessity to house her work – but it brought with it a wider responsibility as a producer. To produce, is to manage – the finest details, and the wildest personalities. Sometimes it means being the parent on set – to which Allison says, “I struggle with that relationship. I am much more comfortable directing. Me, the producer, is not really a person I like – to be honest. Producers aren’t always able to make authentic and connected decisions. The role requires to always be concerned with the bottom line. I worked with Adriaan Louw as his producer for three years. Through working with him, and being a part of his process and supporting – I really discovered the possibilities of what my own work could be. He approaches everything so meaningfully. So for that, as a producer, can mean being able to observe directly the way film-making can and should work.”
One of Allison’s most critically acclaimed works is the short film Scum Boy, as it tells the story of 3D artist and CEC homie of the same name. A beloved being in the creative landscape of South Africa, the film is a taste of his world and mind – and won “Best Short Documentary” at the IMDB Independent Shorts Awards in LA, and was an official selection for Shorts On Tap, London, and Hot Docs 2021 in Toronto, Canada. A vulnerable, beautiful depiction of Scum Boy saturated in a kaleidoscopic hues – Allison reflects on the project, “I was thinking about my career and the kind of work I wanted to make. Scummy and I have a friendship, and I had said that – this in lockdown – I wanted to drive to Cape Town and make a film. So as we were legally able to, Travys and I drove to Cape Town and we made this film. It was totally a labour of love. I ask myself, between everyone that was involved, if something like that could be made now? I don’t think so. It was such a specific moment that birthed the film, among a specific group of people. The editor, William Kalmer, did an incredible job – he sunk his teeth and made this psychedelic world that fits tonally and perfectly with Scum Boy. It all fell into place. Then, it sat on the shelf for six months – I couldn’t get it to move. Finally, we got a break after six months with 4:3 Boiler Room, and then into the festivals. The success has been really cool. The point of the film was to be celebratory – it was essential to bring Scum’s being into a space without struggle as a trans man.”
In the last month, Allison and Travys have moved to New York – to return home for Allison, and for them to reach into new realms in their respective creative development. For Allison, too, it’s to be back in her country of birth – where so much is awry politically, and in which story-telling and archiving social-change and resistance calls out. South Africa will always be their first home together – and Travys’ home ‘home’ – and this is the beauty of geographical movement – to be forged among many places, faces and experiences. Onwards and upwards.
Written By: Holly Bell Beaton
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