Jim Chuchu

Jim Chuchu (born 7 August 1982) is a Kenyan film director, photographer, singer-songwriter and visual artist. He first came to attention as a member of Kenyan music group Just a Band and subsequently as director of Kenyan LGBT film Stories of Our Lives.

Career

After leaving college in 2006, where he studied telecommunications, Chuchu began his career as a graphic designer, working in advertising. He quit his job to become a freelance graphic designer in late 2006.

2006–2012: Early career

In 2008, Chuchu co-founded Just a Band together with fellow members Bill "Blinky" Sellanga and Dan Muli, whom he had met while studying at the Kenyatta University. Jim performed multiple duties in the band, including co-producing the band's first three studio albums, Scratch to Reveal, 82 and Sorry for the Delay, creating graphic art for the band and directing many of the band's videos – including "Ha-He" which spawned viral hit Makmende, causing the video to be subsequently described as Kenya's first viral internet meme by The Wall Street Journal, CNN and Fast Company.

In 2012, Chuchu co-founded The Nest Collective, a multidisciplinary art space and collective in Nairobi.

In March 2013, Chuchu produced and released Imaginary Chains as pseudonymous act Adeiyu. One of the EP singles – Hollow – was featured in the Mercedes Benz Mixed Tape 55. He followed this EP by releasing the single You Can't Break Her Heart in September 2013.

In October 2013, Just A Band announced that Chuchu had left the band to pursue his solo projects. Following his exit, Chuchu then directed his first short film Homecoming as part of the African Metropolis project, which premiered at the 2013 Durban International Film Festival, then went on to screen at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the Film Festival Locarno and the Seattle International Film Festival in 2014.

In April 2014, Chuchu's photography series titled Pagans was featured in the 2014 edition of Dak’Art, the 11th Biennale of Contemporary African Art, as part of the Precarious Imaging: Visibility and Media Surrounding African Queerness exhibition in Dakar, Senegal. The show was cancelled a day after its opening by Senegalese authorities, who ruled that future exhibitions addressing the issue of homosexuality must be closed or canceled.

2014: Stories of Our Lives In September 2014, Chuchu released his first feature film, Stories of Our Lives, an anthology of five short films dramatizing true stories of LGBT life in Kenya which he directed as part of The Nest Collective. The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, where it originally ran without credits due to the collective's concerns about the film's reception in Kenya, where homosexuality is illegal. Following the premiere, Chuchu and fellow Nest Collective members George Gachara and Njoki Ngumi opted to reveal their names at the screening and in an interview with Toronto's LGBT newspaper Xtra!. The soundtrack to the film, for which Chuchu produced and performed four songs, was released in late September as a free download.

2014: Pagans Pagans is a photographic series created by Chuchu that seeks to "[reconstruct] future-past anonymous African deities, their devotees and forgotten religious rites." One untitled work from 2014 depicts "a being with lustrous skin and sculpted muscles [who] looks upwards as fire and feathers emerge from his face." To create the pieces, Chuchu took black and white photographs of individuals, drew and painted additional elements on them, then scanned and digitally altered them.

Filmography Feature films 2014: Stories of Our Lives

Short films 2013: Homecoming 2013: Dinka Translation 2013: Urban Hunter 2020: Tapi!

Web series 2016: Tuko Macho

Videography 2013: Just a Band – Matatizo (co-director) 2011: Just a Band – Huff and Puff (co-director) 2011: Just a Band – Away 2010: Just a Band – Ha-He! 2009: Just a Band – Usinibore 2009: Stan – Wangeci 2009: Just a Band – If I Could 2009: Just a Band – Highway 2008: Just a Band – Hey! 2008: Just a Band – Fly 2008: Manjeru – Lalalalala 2008: Atemi – Speechless 2008: Just a Band – Iwinyo Piny 2008: Mena – Maisha

Group exhibitions Jim's photography and video works have been exhibited in the following group exhibitions: 2014: "Afropean Mimicry and Mockery", Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt. 2014: "Shifting Africa", Mediations Biennale Poznan, Poland. 2014: "Precarious Imaging", Raw Center for Art, Knowledge and Society, Dakar. 2014: "Future Reflexions: Five Positions of Contemporary African Art", Glasgow 2011: "Kudishnyao!" (Just A Band), Rush Arts Gallery (New York) and Goethe-Institut Nairobi 2010: "Mwangalio Tofauti: Nine Photographers from Kenya", Nairobi Gallery 2009: "TRNSMSSN:" (Just A Band), Goethe-Institut Nairobi 2013: Adeiyu – Imaginary Chains (EP)

Mixtapes and remix albums 2011: The Just A Band Boxing Day Special 2011: Kudish: The Sound of Soup

Books Iwalewa: Four Views into Contemporary Africa. Iwalewa Haus, Bayreuth (2013). . Mwangalio Tofauti" – Nine Photographers from Kenya. Contact Zones NRB, Nairobi (2012). 24: Nairobi. Kwani Trust, Nairobi (2010). .