Director's Works
Jens is a Berlin-based director specializing in fashion and lifestyle filmmaking, known for prioritizing authentic narratives over superficial aesthetics.
In early 2024, while spending time in South Africa, he met artist Serati Maseko and was moved by her essay exploring post-Apartheid linguistic identity. With 'African Face, Colonial Tongue,' he steps into a new territory, helping Serati's generation tell a story that deserves to be heard beyond the continent's borders.
I spent two months in South Africa in early 2024, where I met Serati Maseko — a writer and musician born into post-Apartheid South Africa. She shared an essay she'd written about something her generation quietly struggles with: raised to speak English for opportunity, many can no longer communicate with their own grandparents.
As an outsider, I found this profoundly moving. Colonization's impact isn't just historical — it lives in the silences between generations. I wanted to help Serati tell this story.
By chance, Serati had old audio recordings of her grandmother. This became our storytelling foundation — an ancestral voice reaching across time, representing the culture she feels distant from yet deeply connected to.
The production was challenging. Cape Town's film infrastructure isn't forgiving without deep pockets or connections. But these constraints kept us honest: intimate, resourceful, authentic.
I hope audiences recognize that colonization's wounds aren't healed — they've simply changed form. They live in language, in identity, in the space between who we are and who we might have been.
