SOWETO-born storyteller Tebogo Malope is flying Mzansi's flag high.
Tebogo, who directed Netflix’s Queen Sono, The Siya Kolisi Story, Broken Bones and Kwesta’s Spirit music video, is now working with some of the world’s biggest stars.
He is working on a documentary with American NBA stars, rapper J Cole and former US president Barack Obama.
Speaking to SunBuzz about the documentary, Tebogo said: “We’re in post-production cutting it and it’ll hopefully be ready by mid this year. There’s a producer called Richard Brown from an American series called True Detectives. He reached out to me saying he loves my work and asked if I’d be interested in working on the project.
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“The show tells the story of the first NBA build outside of America. Over the past years, I went to about eight different countries putting together this story and now luckily, the former president (Barack Obama) is part of it and I got to sit down with all sorts if interesting characters.”
Tebogo said directing and telling stories is something he lived from a young age.
“There was a park we used to go to and there was a hall where we did plays like Sarafina. Seeing how people would respond and get delighted by a story being told, and seeing them cry or smile, is what I fell in love with from a young age. It's always been about storytelling for me."
He said it doesn’t matter whether it’s a documentary or music video, for him, it’s always about telling stories and that’s his passion.
"I sleep, dream, live and eat storytelling and it’s not easy. We work crazy hours and it’s painful but because it’s what I’m passionate about, it doesn’t feel painful.”
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Tebogo said he has had the opportunity to work, meet and connect with powerful people through his work.
"I’ve met presidents, global superstars, great athletes. I’ve shot with anyone between the president of South Africa to the president of America, to big Nigerian stars and South African stars.
“This passion has allowed me to be in rooms I never thought I’d be in. My background is like any other South African kid. I grew up poor, but by God's grace, sheer luck and hard work, here I am today. My work is hard to the body and mind, but fulfilling to the heart and soul,” Tebogo said.
