I Become More With You
Two lifelong friends fight an anti-racist battle in Sweden with art as a boundless force.
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MyNa DoDirectorFuck Your Fusion, The Mahoyo Project
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Farah YusufDirectorHolding Light, Fuck Your Fusion, The Mahoyo Project
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MyNa DoWriterFuck Your Fusion, The Mahoyo Project
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Farah YusufWriterHolding Light, Fuck Your Fusion, The Mahoyo Project
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Mónica Hernández RejónProducerSon of the Mullah, Fly So Far, All We Own, The Love Immigrants
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Matilda HenningssonEditorGlasskår, Duty Free, Trans Hero, The Ballad,
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Kalle JanssonCinematographer
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Project Type:Documentary
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Runtime:1 hour 15 minutes
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Completion Date:January 31, 2024
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Production Budget:245,966 EUR
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Country of Origin:Sweden
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Country of Filming:Kenya, Sweden, Viet Nam
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Language:English, Swedish, Vietnamese
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Shooting Format:2K, HD
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
Farah Yusuf and MyNa Do form the artist duo and platform Mahoyo. They combine creativity with social issues they are passionate about, by producing projects within several cultural mediums such as photo, styling, and costume designer. In 2013 they produced and directed their first film The Mahoyo Project: South Africa (2015) together with Moira Ganley. In 2020 they co-directed Fuck Your Fusion, their first fiction film. In 2023 Farah directed Holding Light, an artfilm centering blackness and the black experience in Sweden.
One of the biggest challenges for us as artists is to constantly be aware of how we see the world; through which lenses do we see it? We know that our experiences growing up in the Western World have formed and shaped the way we view the global south and the people from those places. Therefore we need to be critical of our colonial thoughts and privileges. But also in regard to the emotions that emerge with the sense of rootlessness we discuss throughout the film. For us, this is one of the fundamental layers within the film: the realisation of its creation as a therapeutic process in which our identities and political relationships to our bodies, our stories, and our friends have changed. What started as a project about two artists using art as a method for change, became a long and deep process of deconstruction and political growth through the years.
There is a great need to nuance the current stories, images, and representations of non-white people and our histories. The only way for us to get through change is to take control over our own narrative and create our own spaces. We also want to show a more nuanced picture of Sweden and of Swedes being multi-diverse, therefore we will not only direct but also have a central role in the film. Our journey, reflections, and experiences will drive the film forward.
This film is a tribute and a way to strengthen and highlight groups of people that are normally marginalised. Conversations about othering, identity, rootlessness, and how one can use art as a tool for change will be at the center. We are also an important part of the creative scene we capture in the film, which thereby increases our ability to gain access to these stories and places. This means the film will be conducted from an inside perspective and not as an observation. It is an act of resistance to the persistent portrayal of minorities in which creative expression and collective strength are the weapons.
To understand the world's differences and similarities fairly, our ambition is to work intersectional and inclusive. Intersectionality has been a way for us to see structures in society and a tool to the dismantling of white supremacy, in order to create actual change. To shift the perspective we need to control the language, the image, and the physical representation. It is of most importance for us that the team behind the film is made of people who understand our perspective and have similar experiences.
We want to share with the audience a deep and honest exploration of the complicated emotions that emerge in relation to the sense of rootlessness and trauma we discuss throughout the film. Making the film implies therefore a process of exploring the most difficult and intimate experiences we have as individuals, as friends and as a creative duo. It opens many sensitive doors and challenges us personally and artistically, but it has also helped us to understand better the real impact and power we have as part of a community.
Our major strategy to deal with this is to be in constant dialogue about our boundaries and needs as directors and protagonists. In every interaction with other crew members and between ourselves we are driven by the aim of creating safe spaces, as we discuss in the film.
MyNa Do & Farah Yusuf / Film Directors and Artists