- Title: Cameroon's "Gurl Boss" crew takes on male-dominated film world
- Date: 6th March 2020
- Summary: BEYALA INSTRUCTING ACTORS WHO PERFORMING AT THE VIDEO SHOOT CLOSE OF BEYALA IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA (SOUNDBITE) (English) TATAPONG BEYALA, MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTOR FOUNDER OF GURL BOSS PRODUCTION, SAYING: 'Okay I decided to have an all-female production team, firstly based on my history, my experience, the difficulties I faced, which I still face. So, i want to show the people in the entertainment industry, be it in Cameroon or all over the world, that it's not because we are girls, we have this soft physical appearance, look, that we should always (and) only be put in the domain of being vixens, being models or actors. We can also go above that, because females…in fact our strength are more than what you think. From my experience so far with my team you will be very in impressed to see the girls carry heavy stuff, the girls being faster, the girls they are the ones doing it. I think we can do it and I think if we create that universe, that space where we can give hope to the other girls that you can go above just being a vixen, you can go above just being that, there is a space for you where if you want to be the boss yourself, you want to be in the technical crew to produce art, you can produce art.''
- Embargoed: 20th March 2020 12:58
- Keywords: ALL FEMALE MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCTION TEAM GURL BOSS PRODUCTION LOR TATAPONG BEYALA
- Location: YAOUNDE, CAMEROON AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION
- City: YAOUNDE, CAMEROON AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION
- Country: Cameroon
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Human-Led Feature,Human-Led Stories
- Reuters ID: LVA007C3WZWPJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: On the set of her latest music video for Cameroonian rapper Lor the 27-year-old Tatapong Beyala makes the final checks before starting the show.
Everyone working on this production is a woman, from the camera crew to technicians and make up artists.
For the 27-year-old owner of Gurl Boss Productions, it is perfect crew to take on the male-dominated world of film production in her central African country and beyond.
"The first challenge just the fact that I am a female. I have a lot of people who don't trust my work not because it's not nice. They don't even believe am the one doing it because I was mentored by a man. So, my mentor even had to ask me to depart from him for me to prove to people that I am the one doing my works. So, they don't want to believe that it's really a girl doing it. So I have a lot of difficulties with my own colleagues, like the other male directors who don't even want to accept me because they are like ''no, she is not the one''. I have lot of difficulties with the clients who are like ''a girl directing''? For the few that I always have the opportunity to direct people think am a man. I have people address to me online (saying) 'Beyala I like his work. I like his work' and when they come on set and they realize it's a girl they look at your age, they look at your physical appearance, they look at the fact that you are a girl. And they are like is this girl going to like? And even when you give them the good works and all just the fact that you are a female, they think you are a joke," she said.
Beyala is a scriptwriter, music video director, choreographer, and video editor. She began her career as a video vixen before getting a masters degree in cinematography and deciding she wanted to go behind the camera to orchestrate the action herself.
Beyala said most women in the film industry in Cameroon are models, vixens or actors with very few working behind the scenes and she wanted to change that.
On this shoot, Beyala filming a music video for Cameroonian rapper Lor's track "Stop".
"All these jokers think they've got something on me" Lor raps, as masked actors crowd around, hassling her. The performer and the actors are dressed in stark black, but other scenes from Beyala's videos - including one for Lor's "On Connait" - burst with bright colours.
Beyala's all-female production company, Gurl Boss Productions, was founded two years ago and employs 7 women.
"I decided to have an all-female production team, firstly based on my history, my experience, the difficulties I faced, which I still face. So, I want to show the people in the entertainment industry, be it in Cameroon or all over the world, that it's not because we are girls, we have this soft physical appearance, look, that we should always (and) only be put in the domain of being vixens, being models or actors. We can also go above that, because females…in fact our strength are more than what you think. From my experience so far with my team you will be very in impressed to see the girls carry heavy stuff, the girls being faster, the girls they are the ones doing it. I think we can do it and I think if we create that universe, that space where we can give hope to the other girls that you can go above just being a vixen, you can go above just being that, there is a space for you where if you want to be the boss yourself, you want to be in the technical crew to produce art, you can produce art," she added.
So far, Beyala and her all-female company have notched up around 50 music videos for Lor and other artists, that have spread far and wide online.
Many of her fans assume she is a man.
But Beyala describes her style as upfront feminine and unmistakenly female.
"In style I am very colorful, yeah. In my videos you always see lots of pink, blue, yeah. So, I try to leave the feminine soft-touch, even if am going for a dark video. I try to bring that thing where you know there is something girlish about this video, there is something lively, there is something, it tells a story that even a man looking at it will understand what it means be a woman. So, I always touch story lines like that," she said.
Beyala started co-directing when she was 20 years old and went solo four years later.
She hopes that her video production company will give a platform for more women to join the industry and succeed. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None