The film version of the award-winning stage play forms part of Ake Arts and Book Festival. Ake is a four day Pan-African literary arts festival based in Lagos, Nigeria. In a moment in history defined by COVID-19, as well as the cataclysmic events taking place currently in Nigeria, Ake is simultaneously running one of the largest curated digital festival programmes on the African continent from 22-25 October. 

The events occurring right now in Nigeria, Congo, Namibia, the United States, and South Africa mirror what is happening to Black people in many parts of the world. This makes Ake Festival, and other cultural platforms like it, absolutely vital in order to interpret, analyze, and give meaning to the events of 2020.

The creation of the film version of Venus Vs Modernity is a Pan-African partnership between Ake Festival, its founder, author and organizer, Lola Shoneyin, and poet and playwright, Lebogang Mashile. The one act, two hander play stars opera singer Ann Masina as Venus and Lebogang Mashile as Saartjie. Masina recently won the Best Newcomer Award at the Naledi Theatre Awards for her breathtaking and boundary breaking performance in the title role. 

Saartjie Baartman, whose ample bodied silhouette has been an iconic image for two centuries, was a woman of Khoi descent born in the Qamtoos River Valley in what is now the Eastern Cape in the late 1700s. At the age of 15, she was abducted and enslaved in Cape Colony. Just a few few years later she was put on display in Europe because of the shape of her body, and she immediately became a pop culture sensation. She endured a life of harrowing abuse that continued beyond her death until her remains were returned to South Africa in 2002. 

Venus Vs Modernity explores themes of history, colonialism, sex work, romance, fame, religion, and body image through spoken word and music. It is a wildly entertaining ride examining the push and pull between freedom and slavery. From hip hop to opera, pop stars to advertising, the world depicted is every bit as much 2020 as it is 1820. 

The original stage production, directed by Pamela Nomvete and Koleka Putuma, has been performed at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg and at Afro-Vibes Festival in Amsterdam. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, it is no longer possible for audiences to gather in theatres. Theatre makers are left with the challenge of how to make productions live on digital screens in order to access audiences.

Matthew Griffiths directs the film version of Venus Vs Modernity which is an intentional artistic experiment to capture the theatrical world of the play within the medium of film. This version also allows the story to travel while theatres worldwide remain in lockdown. 

As xenophobic and nationalistic sentiments rise globally, and as Afrophobia rises in South Africa in particular, this artistic collaboration points to how the arts allow humanity to transcend physical borders, to expand conversations, and in so doing, to grow minds, and create the space to imagine solutions. It is honourable and immensely generous that the resources that made this film possible have been shared by a Pan African, feminist, creative platform located within a country that is on fire at this very moment - a country whose brilliance overflows to the extent that is is able to help capture the life of one of South Africa’s most important, and unforgettable daughters, Saartjie Baartman.