From YouTube to the big screen
• Behind the lens
Namibian movie 'Ompata' is set to premiere at Ster Kinekor Maerua Mall on Friday, 22 July.
MICHAEL KAYUNDEWINDHOEK
With a new generation of stories to be told, tjil caught up with film-maker Roger Waldemar Rafael - affectionately known as Nino Pequeno on the streets and on social media - about the movie ‘Ompata’, what it takes to create magic and everything in between.
Author Malcom Gladwell’s golden rule from the popular book ‘Outliers: The Story of Success’ states that practicing a specific task for 10 000 hours is the amount of time it takes to become an expert.
And it proves to be true - the long hours Rafael spent at the SAE Institute in Cape Town studying film production and working on production sets has landed his work on the big screen.
He shared that having his movie scheduled to premiere at Ster-Kinekor is testament to how far faith and consistency can take you. “It is an achievement my friends and I are proud of, seeing that we started on YouTube.
“We have been watching our productions on our laptops and other small devices but now we get to buy popcorn and watch it in a theatre where international productions are aired. That is big for us,” he said.
Cocktail of drama, action, comedy
Without spoiling the plot, Rafael mentioned that ‘Ompata’ is not confined to one genre but it is a cocktail of drama, action and comedy.
“The movie focuses on the character Sex Champion, played by Adriano Paulus. It is worth adding that our audience, who have been following the YouTube series since 2020, wanted more action - so expect more of that in the movie.
“For context, the forthcoming ‘Ompata’ is a movie spin-off from the YouTube series. We have four seasons streaming on YouTube and now we wanted to give our viewers an actual movie,” he shared.
Credited as the director, Rafael also triples as the script writer and an actor in the movie. On how he balances it all, the film-maker admitted that it is a struggle to give these roles sufficient attention.
“It’s not an easy thing to do because in a normal film setting or just depending on what you do, there are always different people for different roles, so having all these roles on one person is tough. But in Namibia, you have to be everything because of how small our market is - you are forced to learn and do a lot of things by yourself,” he said.
Recruiting new faces
Rafael recalled that at its inception, the ‘Ompata’ series only featured his friends, but as time went by and as the story got bigger, they had to recruit other people. He told tjil they recruited a few acquaintances like Kimzalla and Chilli Bite to add flavour to the story and overall production.
“If you just promote your stuff in your circle, it’ll stay there – we had to branch out. In the movie, though, it was personal. We never know where this movie will take us, it may just take us to Hollywood, then I would have made it with my friends.”
Future plans
After the big premiere - set for Ster-Kinekor Maerua Mall next Friday, 22 July, at 18:30 - Rafael said their next move is a countrywide tour before they try to showcase the film at festivals beyond our borders.
“The plan is to start the country tour at the coast, the south and then hit the north.
“The main aim is to submit the film to festivals so we see and hear what the world has to say about Namibian movies. There have been a number of Namibian movies like ‘Kapana’, ‘Baxu and The Giants’ and ‘Katutura’ on world stages. If they can, we can also try.”
Summing up the conversation with tjil, Rafael expressed his interest to work with other Namibian film-makers, adding that he would like to focus on one or two elements of production like directing or editing.
“I want to collaborate with a lot of creatives. If there are any upcoming directors or a director who has been doing it for longer and wants to work, reach out to me. I believe I can learn from both upcoming and established film-makers.”
With a new generation of stories to be told, tjil caught up with film-maker Roger Waldemar Rafael - affectionately known as Nino Pequeno on the streets and on social media - about the movie ‘Ompata’, what it takes to create magic and everything in between.
Author Malcom Gladwell’s golden rule from the popular book ‘Outliers: The Story of Success’ states that practicing a specific task for 10 000 hours is the amount of time it takes to become an expert.
And it proves to be true - the long hours Rafael spent at the SAE Institute in Cape Town studying film production and working on production sets has landed his work on the big screen.
He shared that having his movie scheduled to premiere at Ster-Kinekor is testament to how far faith and consistency can take you. “It is an achievement my friends and I are proud of, seeing that we started on YouTube.
“We have been watching our productions on our laptops and other small devices but now we get to buy popcorn and watch it in a theatre where international productions are aired. That is big for us,” he said.
Cocktail of drama, action, comedy
Without spoiling the plot, Rafael mentioned that ‘Ompata’ is not confined to one genre but it is a cocktail of drama, action and comedy.
“The movie focuses on the character Sex Champion, played by Adriano Paulus. It is worth adding that our audience, who have been following the YouTube series since 2020, wanted more action - so expect more of that in the movie.
“For context, the forthcoming ‘Ompata’ is a movie spin-off from the YouTube series. We have four seasons streaming on YouTube and now we wanted to give our viewers an actual movie,” he shared.
Credited as the director, Rafael also triples as the script writer and an actor in the movie. On how he balances it all, the film-maker admitted that it is a struggle to give these roles sufficient attention.
“It’s not an easy thing to do because in a normal film setting or just depending on what you do, there are always different people for different roles, so having all these roles on one person is tough. But in Namibia, you have to be everything because of how small our market is - you are forced to learn and do a lot of things by yourself,” he said.
Recruiting new faces
Rafael recalled that at its inception, the ‘Ompata’ series only featured his friends, but as time went by and as the story got bigger, they had to recruit other people. He told tjil they recruited a few acquaintances like Kimzalla and Chilli Bite to add flavour to the story and overall production.
“If you just promote your stuff in your circle, it’ll stay there – we had to branch out. In the movie, though, it was personal. We never know where this movie will take us, it may just take us to Hollywood, then I would have made it with my friends.”
Future plans
After the big premiere - set for Ster-Kinekor Maerua Mall next Friday, 22 July, at 18:30 - Rafael said their next move is a countrywide tour before they try to showcase the film at festivals beyond our borders.
“The plan is to start the country tour at the coast, the south and then hit the north.
“The main aim is to submit the film to festivals so we see and hear what the world has to say about Namibian movies. There have been a number of Namibian movies like ‘Kapana’, ‘Baxu and The Giants’ and ‘Katutura’ on world stages. If they can, we can also try.”
Summing up the conversation with tjil, Rafael expressed his interest to work with other Namibian film-makers, adding that he would like to focus on one or two elements of production like directing or editing.
“I want to collaborate with a lot of creatives. If there are any upcoming directors or a director who has been doing it for longer and wants to work, reach out to me. I believe I can learn from both upcoming and established film-makers.”
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