Productions Archives – Kakic Universe News & Updates

Sibo the Civil Engineer, coming soon!

Kakic Universe — Sat, 12 Aug 2023 11:08:13 +0000

We are excited to announce Sibo the Civil Engineer! A project focused on making learning fun for kids! An animated series based on the books by Michelle R.S Maphosa

We are excited to be working with Stemexplorerz in bringing this project to life and make STEM subjects more appealing for kids!

You can watch the teaser trailer below:

Digipoem: For Such a time as this

Kakic Universe — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 18:44:54 +0000

It was a great honour for us to work on this collaborative piece titled ‘For such a time as this’ with Rutendo Denise Mutsamwira ( Spoke Word Artist). The piece celebrates the Coronation of the new King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the Common Wealth Realms.

This collaboration combines music, animation and spoken word in honor and celebration of the new King .

This DigiPoem is part of the Scripts and Bars Creative Accelerator Project.

Supported by the British Council Cultural Economy Programme, which supports cultural organisations, festivals, artists and creatives between the countries of SSA* and the UK to create art and build networks, collaborate and develop markets and share artists’ work with audiences.

Below you can watch the video and Kuda’s Experience at the official Coronation Party at the British Ambassador’s house. Check them out below:

Watch the video:

The Experience:

Watch Kuda’s narration of the coronation party:

Watch Journey of the Forsaken

Kakic Universe — Sat, 08 Oct 2022 10:09:57 +0000

Journey of the forsaken is finally available to watch online!

Left without a father and subject to the abuse of a jealous uncle, Journey of the Forsaken details the exploits of a young man who descends into Zimbabwe’s underground in search of what it means to be a man but are there enough support systems in society for vulnerable young boys like him?

Journey of the Forsaken is an 8 Episode animation series that focuses on the topic of how vulnerable young men are neglected in Society just beacuse they are male and are expected to fall within the toxic stereotype of being a “strong male”. Regardless of Gender, we are all human, we all have feelings and we all need support when we are vulnerable and going through life’s challenges.

Journey of the Forsaken is supported by the British Council Cultural Economy programme, which supports cultural organisations, festivals, artists, and creatives between the countries of SSA* and the UK to create art, build networks, collaborate and develop markets and share artists’ work with audiences.

About the British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We build connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. Last year we reached over 80 million people directly and 791 million people overall including online broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body. We receive a 15 per cent core funding grant from the UK government. www.britishcouncil.org

How to watch Journey of the forsaken

The first 3 Episodes are available to watch for free on our Youtube channel!

The rest will have to be accessed on a pay per view basis on platforms such as gateway stream.

For more information on where to watch it use the link below:

JOF Premiere/5TH Anniversary Celebration

Kakic Universe — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 23:27:42 +0000

They say the true test of a start up is if it can survive its first 5 business years. It is with great joy for us to have celebrated our 5th Anniversary On Saturday 17 September, we also Premiered the First Episode of our new show, JOURNEY OF THE FORSAKEN

Kakic Universe celebrates its Anniversary every year on the 5th of September, and with the production of Journey of the forsaken being finalised within the same time frame, we decided to celebrate both items.

What Happened?

The event was hosted at Sterling Boutique Lodge, in Harare, Zimbabwe. Present were members of the press, Executives and business partners, friends, family and the Kakic Universe Fans.

Free transport was provided for those who needed it, courtesy of Kakic Universe and Sterling Boutique Lodge.

When our guests arrived, they were offered free complimentary drinks and there was time to mix, mingle and network.

You can watch the Short Video highlights to see a glimpse of what happened.

The Event

After our Creative Director, Kudakwashe Maxwell welcomed people to the event, the Operations manager at Sterling Boutique Lodge, Mr. Zhou, gave the guests welcome remarks and declared a few House Keeping Issues.

After that, Kudakwashe Introduced himself to the Audience. The goal of the first half of the Event, was to take the audience on the journey of how Kakic Started and everything it went through, until it’s 5th Anniversary.

While in High school, He began experimenting with various Software, which is how he created his first Official Animation, the Life and Time Of Choice Zvenhamo. He then urged the audience to observe the improvement and growth of the animation work as the years progressed, you can watch the Life and Time of Choice video below:

However, Kuda was Still In School and still had to focus on his studies, but he did continue to develop his animation skills when he had the free time.

As Kuda was approaching his final years, he begun looking towards the future and how best he could pursue a career in animation. Kuda said “God’s plan and timing are always best,” because around this time, his high school then introduced a social media club, which Kuda joined and as a part of it, they set up Social Media Pages and the School’s Website.

Kuda made the unpopular decision of dropping out of his High School’s Boy’s Hockey Senior First Team, and the Stigma surrounding his decision, especially considering the fact that being a member of the first team was regarded as a great honour and achievement. However, while Kuda understood this, he begun to really consider his future seriously and how best he could prepare for it.

Through the social media club, he begun working on his skills and by the time he left high school he was ready to start working.

After Releasing some work, he caught the attention of the media and press for a while, appearing on several TV interviews, radio interviews and press articles, however, Kuda was focused on finding where the money was, and he was more concerned with finding ways to monetise his art.

Kuda on Set before an Interview with the National Broadcaster

Kuda and his interviewer Whitney, before the Interview

Kuda and Lisa After the Interview

Kudakwashe Maxwell Being interviewed by MSU Staff students

Kuda then realised that if he was not careful, he could quickly become a very popular yet very broke person. Thus He shifted his focus from entertainment and started working on developing KAKIC BUSINESS, the media consultancy side of the company that would focus on generating money and inject it into the business, allowing for there to be growth and capacity to do so much more.

He then went on to share the story of the “Gweru Chronicles”, how he ended up lecturing at MSU and how he got endorsement from the minister of education (You can visit these stories later, in the annex at the bottom of the page)

The Renaissance Era

Kakic Business ended up consuming so much time that Kuda didn’t have time to create further art for entertainment, but this had to be changed, and thus a brilliant video was created, one of Kuda’s Favourites even to date, you can watch bouquet below:

The audience was impressed with the improvement in quality and also many were touched by the amazing, powerful and emotional message that the video carried. Kuda then stated that he realised he wanted to create content that had the Capacity to make an impact in society and he wanted to pursue that further.

The Covid 19 Era

As is public knowledge, the year 2020 unfortunately brought with it, the Global Pandemic known as Covid 19. The deadly virus led to a lot of nationwide lockdowns and other drastic measures, as countries were trying to contain and prevent the spread of the virus. Kuda saw an opportunity in Crisis, and went on to Partner with the World Health Organisation and the ministry of health on some educational and entertainment Videos to help fight the virus:

The Covid 19 induced lockdowns also created an opportunity for Kakic to collaborate with Popular Multi Award Winning Zimbabwean Comedian, Learnmore Jonasi (Formerly Long John the Comedian).

Watch the Long John Animated Show Below:

All of this content generated within the Covid 19 Era saw a boost and an increase in clients for Kakic Business. However, Kuda wanted a chance to show what he could really do, which led to the collaboration with Local Poet, Hey Hey Preacher on one of our favourites, Panze:

Food break

After the recap session of the first 5 years, we then went for a food break, where the Marvelous Team at Sterling Boutique served delicous food and beverages.

It was refreshing time of interaction, socialising and networking.

The Premiere of Journey of the forsaken

To finish off the story of Kakic’s First 5 years, Kuda then shared the dark side of the journey, the painful loses, the discouraging moments, the pain, the times he felt like giving up. All of the challenges faced when one tries to pursue a creative career in a 3rd world Country.

He then thanked the amazing support system he has as he would have never managed to lead the company to 5 years without them.

After this, we then premiered the first episode of Journey of the forsaken.

Conclusion

After the premiere of the show, Kuda went on to thank everyone who has been supporting him from the start until now. He spoke about the times he wanted to give up, the challenges he face and how he only made it through because of the amazing support system he had.

Afterwards the event was concluded and people went outside to eat, further networking and have cake.

Appendix Section

JOF: Meet the Cast

Kakic Universe — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 11:14:43 +0000

Meet the amazing cast of JOURNEY OF THE FORSAKEN, our upcoming animated series.

The following people were the voice over artists for their respective characters:

Meet the cast

Stay Updated!

Stay updated with news and updates from Journey of the Forsaken. Follow the hashtag #JOF on all social media platforms, or follow us on the following platforms:

Journey of the forsaken Coming Soon

Kakic Universe — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 09:16:08 +0000

We are excited to announce our upcoming animated series, ‘Journey of the forsaken‘, Coming Soon.

Featuring voice over work by Kuda Rice, Elaine Lenny Manyika,Kudakwashe Maxwell, Takudzwa Goniwa, Louisa Mwatse, Anopa Maisiri Charles, Philani Ama Kinyabo, Samuel Magaya, Tariro Paul Makanha, Robyn Denise Ebenezer Maxwell and Amanda Mak

Music and Scoring by ea Records

Stay Tuned for more Updates….

HIV Awareness for the Deaf Community

Kakic Universe — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 11:10:56 +0000

A lot of awareness campaigns are making use of digital media to raise awareness on important issues in society. While this is good, the deaf community tends to be left out. It was a great honour for us to work with Nzeve Deaf Centre on creating these specific videos to educate them on this Issues. The videos had to make use of actions and facial expressions to express the message.

The Grapevine project

The Grapevine project made use of simplified story telling to communicate scenarios that some of the girls in deaf communities face.

Emphasis is on the storytelling and facial expressions, Sign Language and Subtitles were not an option as sign language varies with each region and community, so it was left out as it could potentially confuse or discourage those who have received limited to no education.

The stories and actions had to be very simple to follow and relatable so they could be inclusive to as many people as possible.

Nzeve Deaf Center intends to use these videos to have discussions and workshops in the different communities and have the participants learn how to handle themselves in such situations and other helpful lessons.

Video 01: Tadiwa's story

Other work for Nzeve Deaf Center

It was also a great honour for us to work with Nzeve Deaf Center on community comic books which they used to communicate and educate issues of inclusivity for the disabled community. Check this project out below:

Patimire (Where we stand) Covid 19 Animation Series with This is Africa

Kakic Universe — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 14:28:18 +0000

Patimire (Where we stand)

The Covid-19 Pandemic disrupted life for everyone all around the globe. We were excited to work with This is Africa as part of their storytelling project, on this tripartite video animation series capturing the various ways in which the pandemic has had disproportionate economic impact on the urban poor (economically vulnerable households), with serious implications on family relationships.

Watch the 3 episodes below

Episode 01

Episode one introduces the family and captures the animated challenges the family faces. It’s a story about the Phiri family living in the high-density suburbs. A family of four, faced with their unique version of a distressing time during this pandemic.

Episode 02

Based on the lockdown experiences of the Phiri family, mourning the loss of a loved one during the pandemic, episode two focusses on dispelling some rampant myths and misinformation on COVID-19 vaccination and encourages people to get vaccinated as doses are becoming available across the continent.

Episode 03

In this episode we highlight that the need for wearing masks remains essential, even now that some people are being vaccinated. There are several good reasons to keep masking up and observing physical distancing.

The episode encourages people to continue masking up even with vaccines now being rolled out. The availability of vaccines is not an automatic end for the pandemic and it’s not an instant return to normal.

The experiences of the Phiri family have highlighted the numerous effects COVID-19 has had on family dynamics. However, despite the numerous challenges, the lessons the Phiri family has learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic, their optimism, trials, tribulations and triumphs give us hope that we will come out of the pandemic bruised and battered but stronger.

CREDITS

This series is a creative storytelling collaboration between This is Africa (TIA) and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)

Kudakwashe Maxwell

Director, Animator, Sekuru Tindo, Txeli, Cop 2

Kudzaishe Chimedza

Writer, Michelle's friend

Anopa Maisiri

Mr Phiri

Elaine Manyika

Mrs Phiri, Doctor Janet

Kudakwashe Mtuwa

Timothy Phiri, Relative 01

Tariro Makanha

Narrator, Cop 1

Philemon Matambanadzo

Relative 02

Lisa Maxwell

Michelle Phiri

Stingymen the movie : teaser trailer

Kakic Universe — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Stingymen the movie: teaser trailer

Here’s a teaser trailer for the amazing upcoming film for the stingymen association of zimbabwe! Watch it below:

Preview images

Official trailer will be posted soon, so make sure you follow us on intsgram so that you don’t miss the announcement!

Panze- The Effects of the Lockdown on the people of Zimbabwe | Animated Poem

Kakic Universe — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 17:03:06 +0000

Panze- Poem on the effects of Lockdown on the people of Zimbabwe

Lockdown has brought some devasting effects on some of the people of Zimbabwe. Watch this animated video based on the poem, “Panze” which touches on some of those effects. Panze was written by Hey Hey Preacher, a Zimbabwean contemporary hip hop and spoken word artist. Watch the video below!

Want more?

Visit the dedicated page below with more information, behind the scenes, interviews etc on the piece