Lunch with Sodom & Gommorah

Interview with Curtis Essel, director of Sodom & Gomorrah

Can you tell us more about the project to build the training centres? How are you involved?
Filmmaking for me is not only to tell inclusive and diverse stories. It’s paramount that with every film I produce, there is a social impact initiative to follow it. In March 2018, I made my debut short film titled AGYA – which follows a father of four named Yaw, he describes fatherhood as an unplanned venture that he wasn’t prepared for. I captured most of the footage for this film in an area called Kaneshie in Accra, Ghana. Whilst being there, I noticed that despite children in the area were attending school, they were in need of further academic support. This resulted in me recycling an unused shipping container into a free public library for those children in that community aged between 5-16. Here’s a website link to my social impact organisation “Allumuah Roots” where you’ll find details of the library: https://www.allumuahroots.com. So following from this, I’d look to secure funding along with the Chief Asafoatse Nettey Quarshie in order to bring these skilled training centres to life on Jamestown Beach.

How did you meet the various people you’ve interviewed for the film?
After meeting Chief Asafoatse Nettey Quarshie, he introduced me to Zinatu, Scorpion and Nii Odo before I started filming.

Why did you choose to have voice-overs?
Throughout all my documentary work, I feel as though having the camera pointing at the subjects whilst I was speaking to them would’ve hindered the amount of intimacy and vulnerability they were able to share with me. Hence why I use voice-overs throughout as it helps the viewer to connect with each of their stories at a much deeper level.

What do you think the audience will take home from the film?
A reminder of one of our human powers; to persevere despite adversity.

What do you hope to explore in the near future as a filmmaker?
To shed more light on the social issues not only in Ghana but all over Sub-Saharan Africa. I’ll be heading back to Ghana in the summer, to monitor the library as well as to explore causes I’ll document next.

Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?
Most definitely. In this day and age with visual media being so vast and accessible, we consume it at an unprecedented rate. The short film format allows us to create powerful content in such a digestible way.

Sodom & Gomorrah is part of International Competition I9.