Shot across 16mm, VHS, DV, and Digital, Breakfast in Kisumu is a personal homage to the 20-year journey of renowned professor and political activist Rok Ajulu. Filmed across six countries between Europe and Africa, with a proxy-archival quality, it follows Rok’s account of his struggles as an exiled freedom fighter of the post-colonial, apartheid era. In conversation with his daughter, he tells of his numerous deportations, prison sentences, and academic career. As Rok recounts the collapse of the apartheid regime, Breakfast in Kisumu shows us a homecoming: his journey back to Africa for the transition of the African National Congress (ANC) from a liberation movement into a governing party, his marriage into the Sisulu Family, and the continental significance of 1994.
Breakfast in Kisumu is the story of political exile Professor Rok Ajulu; a journey back to Africa, and the 20 years it took to get there. The film premiered at the Encounters International Documentary Film Festival in Cape Town, South Africa in June 2019. it was then nominated for the International Short Documentary Award at IDFA, screening at Pathé Tuschinski in Amsterdam for a week in November 2019. The film has shown at The University of Oxford, MAO Gallery, and Oxfam House; BIK was selected for feature in the British Council’s UK Documentary Catalogue, followed by selection in the international category for best short documentary award at film festivals in Italy (Roma Cinema Doc), Portugal (IndieLisboa), then to sold out screenings at London’s biggest celebration of African cinema, Film Africa. The film will screen at Afrika Film Festival Köln in September 2021.
| NKG presents a CORETTA PRODUCTION | a film by REBECCA ACHIENG AJULU-BUSHELL “Breakfast in Kisumu” | Cinematographer OLIVER BRADLEY-BAKER | Edited by MDHAMIRI A NKEMI | Music by SHEKU KANNEH-MASON | Executive Producer RAPHAEL LAURENT, ADRIAN MARTIN STICKEL |
| Directed and Produced by REBECCA ACHIENG AJULU-BUSHELL |