After Kinte
by Tako Taal
After Kinte continues Tako’s interest in the slippage between individual identity and wider cultural histories. After Kinte builds on research into the format of the actors’ roundtable, synonymous with the US-based film industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter. At these roundtables, celebrated actors often reflect on the experience and art of inhabiting a character, and the impact this has on their everyday lives.
After Kinte’s title references the fictional character, Kunta Kinte, at the centre of Alex Haley’s bestselling novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family, 1976. Kinte is based on an ancestor of Haley’s who was enslaved in The Gambia throughout the 18th century and taken to North America. In 1977 Roots was serialised for television and became the most watched TV mini-series. The global success of Roots has led to Kinte’s Gambian birthplace becoming a site of pilgrimage, a condition that Tako has previously explored in her work and circulates through the character of Kunta Kinte as a cultural spectacle. After Kinte questions the various ways that histories and memory may resurface in the present day, and how characterisation can become a place of genesis or departure.
Words from Glasgow International
Clips from the documentation film of After Kinte (silent)
After Kinte ran for five performances at Tramway for Glasgow International 2024, and I was approached by Tako's producer Conor Baird to produce a live stream of the final performance so that it could be viewed by a wider audience.
We decided to pre-record an earlier performance of the piece and broadcast this film as a live stream in parallel with the final performance on Sunday 16th June.
After viewing a dress rehearsal of the performance, I had conversations with Tako about how to approach the filming, and we agreed to flirt with the aesthetics of the actors roundtable with a three-camera setup—shot reverse and wide shot—but to keep the focal length more restrained, keeping the film still in the theatrical and mostly showing all three performers at all times in each shot. We shot the two side angles in 6K resolution to give us the flexibility to go into a medium or closer shot in the edit, as we knew we'd probably like to do this at least once for each character. Because we took the pre-recorded option, it meant we could spend some time together in the edit ahead of broadcast to tease out dramatic cues and make the most of the video format.
Clip from the introduction of After Kinte featuring music by Claude Nouk
Dialogue clip from After Kinte featuring performers Rebecca Wilkie, Adam Kashmiry and Sabrina Mandulu.
For sound, Claude Nouk created fabulous music and sound design for the piece, working quite dynamically across six channels. Mark Readhead came on board and worked with Tramway Technician John Palmer to record all of Claude's channels, as well as a feed from the actor's radio mics and room recording, which was all mixed together to create a sound mix faithful to the sound of the performance in-person.
Camera Operators Daniel Hughes, Jordan Yorkston and Andrew Black
Sound Recordist Mark Readhead
Performers Adam Kashmiry, Sabrina Mandulu, Rebecca Wilkie and Tako Taal
Sound Design by Claude Nouk
Lighting Design by Paul Sorley
Set Fabrication Dan Griffiths
Makeup Artist MV Brown
Audio Technician John Palmer
Producer Conor Baird
