Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese | |
|---|---|
 Mosese at FCAT in 2022 | |
| Born | January 17, 1980 |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2007-present |
Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (born 17 Jan 1980) is a Mosotho screenwriter, film director and visual artist. He lives in Berlin.[1]
Early Life
Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese was born and grew up in Hlotse. As a child, Mosese watched 16mm B grade movies in a small abandoned community hall in his home town Hlotse. Before making films he started writing poetry.
Career
He and a friend founded a production company, Vision 12, but struggled to make it financially viable. After returning to Lesotho, he made his first feature film Khapha tsa Mali (Tears of Blood) (2007), which he later disowned as "bad cinema".[citation needed] His follow-up work was a short film trilogy consisting of Mosonngoa (2014), Behemoth or the Game of God (2016), and video installation / short film Loss of Innocence (2008). His short films have travelled extensively, winning awards on the festival circuit.
In 2019 Mosese received critical acclaim on the film festival circuit with his feature-length essay film Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You is a docufiction essay treating the filmmaker's personal exile from Lesotho.[1] It went on to premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2019 and continues to screen at festivals and museums, including MoMA and Museum Ludwig.[1]
In This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection, a widow mourning the death of her son leads resistance to a dam that would destroy the village cemetery. It was developed through the Biennale College and screened at the 76th Venice International Film Festival,[2] Rotterdam Film Festival 2020, Sundance Film Festival 2020 among many others. Mosese was the recipient of several awards for the film, including Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival.
Mosese's third feature-length film, Ancestral Visions of the Future, is described as a "look at a landscape", that being Lesotho once again.[3] In an interview Mosese names Jamaican writer Sylvia Wynter as an inspiration for the film.[4]
Themes and Inspirations
His films explore spiritual and political themes, and are noted for their minimal dialogue, strong poetic imagery, and preoccupation with his own childhood memories, identity as well as physical and metaphorical death.[5]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Type | Ref(s). |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Tears of Blood | Feature film | |
| 2008 | Loss of Innocence | Short film / Video installation | |
| 2014 | Mosonngoa, The Mocked One | Short film | |
| 2016 | Behemoth: Or the Game of God | Short film | |
| 2019 | Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You | Feature film | |
| This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection | Feature film | ||
| 2025 | Ancestral Visions of the Future | Documentary film | [6] |
References
- ^ a b Director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese: Africa Is ‘In the Process of Becoming’, Variety, 23 July 2019.
- ^ Venezia 1/ "This is not a burial, it's a resurrection",'Dinamo Press, 31 August 2019.
- ^ Bizern, Catherine. "Ancestral Visions of the Future". Cinéma du Réel. Retrieved 17 March 2025.
- ^ Kim, Joshua Minsoo (16 March 2025). "Film Show 050: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese". Tone Glow. Retrieved 17 March 2025.
- ^ "The Juries of the Films After Tomorrow".
- ^ "Ancestral Visions of the Future". Berlinale. 4 February 2025. Retrieved 6 February 2025.
