I’m happy to see this short work finally making its way online for all to see – we first mentioned it on this blog in late 2012 when it had just kicked off its international film festival travels, taking it to countless destinations all over the world, winning acclaim along the way.

In brief, it comes from Kenyan filmmaker/animator Ng’endo Mukii, and is titled "Yellow Fever" – an impressive piece of mixed-media art, combining hand-drawn animation, computer animation, pixilation, and live action, to make a statement on global standards of beauty and those who control them. 

"Yellow Fever" also happens to be Ng’endo’s thesis film, made in 2012, at the Royal College of Art in London. 

In her own words: "I am interested in the concept of skin and race, and what they imply; in the ideas and theories sown into our flesh that change with the arc of time. I believe skin and the body, are often distorted into a topographical division between reality and illusion. The idea of beauty has become globalised, creating homogenous aspirations, and distorting people’s self-image across the planet. In my film, I focus on African women’s self-image, through memories and interviews; using mixed media to describe this almost schizophrenic self-visualization that I and many others have grown up with."

It’s certainly a topic that’s been addressed, and continues to be addressed, in work featured on this website and elsewhere – a source of much consternation.

Watch "Yellow Fever" in full below: