Joy's Garden
Edwin is no one's ideal Dad. Can he step up when his estranged daughter Joy needs a home?
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Ngwatilo MawiyooDirector
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Ngwatilo MawiyooWriter
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Mungai KirogaProducerSomething Necessary
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Hawa EssumanProducerSoul Boy, Silas
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Firul MaithyaProducerShoto
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Ngwatilo MawiyooProducer
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Melvin AlusaKey Cast"Edwin"Lusala, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, The First Grader, Unseen Unsung Unforgotten, Weakness, Adisa, Subira
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Torah NatoKey Cast"Joy"
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Project Type:Short
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Genres:Drama, Family
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Runtime:13 minutes 29 seconds
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Completion Date:July 8, 2021
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Production Budget:2,500 USD
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Country of Origin:Kenya
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Country of Filming:Kenya
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Language:English, Swahili
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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Zanzibar International Film FestivalZanzibar
Tanzania, United Republic of
July 23, 2021
World Premiere
Official Selection -
Almagro International Film FestivalAlmagro
Spain
August 1, 2021
Official Selection -
Washington West Film FestivalWashington, DC
United States
October 21, 2021
Official Selection -
Cucalorus Film FestivalWilmington, NC
United States
November 11, 2021
Official Selection -
VGIK International Students FestivalMoscow
Russian Federation
November 18, 2021
Official Selection -
Amity Short Film FestivalIstanbul
Turkey
December 4, 2021
Finalist -
Pan African Film FestivalLos Angeles
United States
April 25, 2022
Official Selection -
Seattle Black Film FestivalSeattle
United States
May 1, 2022 -
Women of African Descent Film FestivalNew York
United States
June 11, 2022 -
Love Your Shorts Film FestivalSanford
United States -
Afrika Film Festival KölnKöln
Kenya
September 16, 2022 -
Silicon Valley African Film FestivalSan Jose
United States
October 15, 2022 -
Manyatta Screenings
Kenya
October 28, 2022
Ngwatilo Mawiyoo received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She makes her debut as a writer/director and producer with her short film, JOY'S GARDEN, for which she received a Docubox (East Africa Film Fund) grant.
Ngwatilo is the author of two poetry collections, BLUE MOTHERTONGUE and DAGORETTI CORNER. As an actor, Ngwatilo has played leading and supporting roles in several drama series for mainstream broadcasters in Kenya and MNET South Africa, including THE AGENCY, MNET’s first ever original hour-long Kenyan drama series, written and directed by Ekwa Msangi. She went on to star in Msangi’s short SOKO SONKO and Amar Tei Amar’s ARC.
Absent or largely unavailable fathers have become a common occurrence in my communities. Mothers have had to fill the gap and many endure, which offers some, if limited, comfort. But mothers still worry if and how their children would survive their absence should the worst happen.
JOY'S GARDEN attempts to bring to life a moment where an absent father encounters himself as his child's last hope. I needed to realize how he might step up. JOY'S GARDEN is at its heart a hopeful story: about how a child might survive their mother’s death, how a maladapted man could learn to listen and understand what his child needs.
While it could happen anywhere, I was interested in setting this story in the housing developments that many middle-class families in Nairobi live in today: concrete boxes not well suited to fostering children's play, let alone their connections to the natural world.