MELISSA Nayimuli’s journey with Miss South Africa has inspired her creative side to make a documentary.
Melissa, who was in the Miss South Africa 2023 top five, said her passion project led to her working on the doccie, titled Chosi Chosi.
The 27-year-old from Butterworth in the Eastern Cape is also a producer for Black Brain Pictures which is behind productions such as Lockdown, DiepCity and Isitha: The Enemy.
She spoke to Daily Sun about her new project.
“This documentary started with my personal life. But what sparked it was my recent Miss SA journey. It was inspired by my passion project which is to build a united Africa. I think whenever people speak about unity, in whatever aspect, it’s always daunting, especially things like xenophobia which I’m passionate about.
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“When I look at my own family, my father being Ugandan and my mum being Xhosa, I’ve been in between cultures. I know what it feels like to be treated as both,” she said.
Mellissa said she hopes the doccie starts conversations among people all over the world.
“It’s so important for us to have conversations and build unity around us and Chosi Chosi does that. It educates each other about who we are. Often, we're told who we are, what we should do or how to behave. But we're our own people and there’s so much we can learn from each other,” she said.
The beauty queen also opened up about how she got into filmmaking.
“I grew up eGcuwa and there was a time when we weren’t exposed to TV, let alone being behind the scenes. So, I never even thought of it as a career to explore until we moved to Joburg. We moved when I was 13 years old. And coming from a Ugandan household, we needed to do something very academic. But I always loved writing and being creative. I just didn’t know what to do with it or how to do it as a career.
“I thought I'd be a lawyer until I met a friend who was an actress and told me about acting as an industry, and that’s how my interest was sparked. I learnt about the different careers you could explore and a full-time career,” she said.
The doccie will be released on YouTube in December 2023.
