You do low budget movies, in most cases entirely by yourself. How did you get into filmmaking?
Well, I really got into filmmking through photography just like you got writing all kinds of stuff through taking pictures and writing about your subjects. I use to take photos of my friends doing weird things, like smoking and doing vandalism. I did this whole series that I submitted to this guy who wanted to fund my projects in a way, which was really a kind of photo-journalistic document, and that led to the idea of making documentaries. I remember when I went to Mr. Joe's house and was auditioning recruiting script writers and everyone I met there was writing scripts. I was only17 at the time and when you write a script, so much of it is about what you pull from life and this sounds kind of cracky, but I felt like I didn't have enough life experience at the point to start making a documentar before getting into some other projects like deejaying part-time and working towards college.
You have told me several times that you have always wanted to do a documentary on how so much has changed in our present day society. What does that mean?
I mean if you look around, it has been guys and their relationships.. I mean I don't want to get too personal about it, but I grew up raised by a mom while my dad was on a diplomatic assignment, and he was gone all the time, so I never had real male influence in my life. I really never understood heterosexual male relationships. It's like what do you get out of that relationship? I never understood that bonding that happens. It's something I have always been fascinated with because there's such an awkwardness to most heterosexual male relationships. You see women who are friends and they kiss each other goodbye, and they are so much warmer with each other. But there's this thing with guys where, even between best friends, there's a standoffishness. There is still this tension to contact. The fact is that my mother raised me with the idea that you should always do everything you can to not fit in, to be an individual. I was taught that you didn't want to be part of the group.
On cooking, you have talked much about your cooking. How did you develope the cooking stuff?
I'm very proud of my origins. I've had the honor of being very close to my grandma while I partly grew up in Namibia, and I got to learn a lot from her, all her sayings and recipes. She loved to cook. My grandma started going to harvests and she sarted cooking for a living. There was nothing there but beef, deer and bush rat. She use to raise her chickens and that's how they got their eggs. There were just a very few stores and no companies to distribute their foor to the big cities, so that's how they started. So I leaned to cook traditional Namibian home-made foods from my grandma.
And your mom?
My mom was a stay-at-home mom taking care of us, and she usually made really good meals with what my grandma had brought home. That's when she started cooking seafood. She probably does not make the best, but man, ask her to make seafood soup sometimes with corn flavor.
What are some of the dishes?
While there are no specific or unique dishes or preparation methods for Namibian cooking, I should point out that attention to detail is important in the Namibian cuisine. Like Namibian cuisine, which are not many around here, it uses elements from various cooking traditions borrowed from their neighbors and developed from their own traditional dishes, like German or French. Using the right amount of spices for example is essential – either for spicing up the taste or for coloring the dish. The diversity of vegetables and cereals found in Namibia is also noticed in the delicious dishes belonging to their cuisine. Each traditional dish has a special cooking method, which is more or less general in all of Namibian regions. Meat is one of the main elements of most Namibian dishes and cured and smoked hams are often parts of delicious dishes. The visual attractiveness of the dish is also important, and a balance between colors and proportion differentiates from a region to another.
The last time we bumped into each other was at the Viper Room in Hollywood. Are you still Disc Jokeying?
I do it now at my pace since I'm focusing on other stuff in my career.
Like?
Keep doing what I keep doing, writing and working on my book and a documentary about Namibian culture, its history and the people. It's been my major project and it's already three years in the making.
Still writing poetry?
Of course.
Good luck!
