Photo courtesy of Powder Room Films

A film by Frances Bodomo
12 min | B&W | High Definition | NTSC |16:9
USA, 2013
Status:  In post-production

Afronauts is a pre-thesis film by talented filmmaker Frances Bodomo which Ciné Kenya previously featured here.

Since then, several casting choices were announced. Stunning model/actress Diandra Forrest (you can see her in Kanye West’s ‘Power‘ music video) will be playing Matha and prolific actress/director Yolonda Ross (HBO’s Treme, Yelling to the Sky and her own film Breaking Night) is playing Auntie Sunday. We are also pleased to announce Bodomo’s Kickstarter campaign has also achieved its fund-raising goal days before its deadline. The teaser trailer above released recently, features the haunting Elvis Presley rendition of ‘Blue Moon’.

Diandra Forrest

Yolonda Ross

The film tells an alternative history of the 1960s Space Race; it’s July 16th 1969 the night of the moon landing. The project is based on a true story. The dreams of space travel led science school teacher Edward Makuka Nkoloso to found a National Space Academy of Science, Space Research, and Astronomical Research in an old farmhouse outside of Lusaka. As America prepares to send Apollo 11 to the moon, a rag-tag group of exiles in the Zambian desert are trying to beat America to the same destination. There’s only one problem: their spacegirl, Matha, is five months pregnant. Afronauts follows characters that have not been able to find a home on earth and are therefore attracted to the promise of the space race.

Bodomo’s previous short film Boneshaker starring Quvenzhané Wallis premiered at 2013 Sundance Film Festival and is currently continuing its festival run.

Photo courtesy of Powder Room Films