FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. 1) How did you come up with the idea for the script?

The original script was written in 1983 when screenwriter, Queenae Taylor Mulvihill was a graduate student at UCLA. The original script was entitled, Hekate and was based on that Greek Goddess. It was originally written as a vehicle for Bette Davis who was considering it before she died. The idea came about as the result of a Tarot reading Queenae gave herself. The spread, a Celtic cross, began with The Tower card, as Queenae calls it "the worst card in the deck." "Its not a good card to pull especially in this placing of the Significator. It basically meant the rug was being pulled out from under me, which I had already been feeling the effects of-- At the time my life was falling apart and all of those foundational supports that had been there and in place were no longer standing beginning with my mother who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's." The card in the "Final Outcome" (the last position) was the Crone. The Crone is very old and wise, but juxtaposed with the Tower, it basically represented destruction. "In writing the script I had to characterize that destruction into an entity and thus I was led to the Destroyer Goddess, Hekate. Indigenous peoples have always had Destroyer Goddesses--Pele in Hawaii, Kali in India, Oya' in West Africa, Coatlicue in South America and Rhiannon in Europe--all of their energy is basically the same. They are very "mental"--the mind/ego being the field upon which they play and it was a natural choice to set the story in a mental hospital with the main character being a mental patient."

2) How did the script go from being a story for Bette Davis to becoming an African film?

Ten years later in 1993 American director Ron Mulvihill went to Australia to work with Tanzanian director Martin Mhando on a documentary. Martin who worked with Ron on the award winning film, ARUSI YA MARIAMU suggested that they collaborate on a feature film. Ron pitched all of Queenae's scripts and Martin felt Hekate was a very Tanzanian story. Ron asked Queenae permission to adapt the story to an African setting. The Goddess character was changed to an ancient ancestor and the doctor's story was developed more substantially and reclaims a healing for the Diaspora.

3) What does "Maangamizi" mean?
"Maangamizi" is a Swahili word that literally translates into "destroyer", or "destruction."

4) When did you start the project?

We started production in 1994, three weeks short of completion, our funding fell through and production was halted. It took until 1997 to raise enough money to return to complete shooting. We raised additional money for post and consequently, we didn't begin to edit until 1999. We completed the 35mm print in November, 2000.

5) What was it like to shoot in Tanzania?

It was an extremely profound and enlightening experience for all of us involved with the project. Of course, shooting a film in a country where there is basically no infrastructure for film was a constant challenge--but as we all were professionals who were committed to and believed in the project we persevered. Ultimately we were forced to be more creative. The most unexpected part of the shoot was coming to the realization that while we had taken on the challenge of constructing a tale about Spirit, Spirit actually took over the production. Circumstances and events caused us to make script changes daily. We had to learn to flow and to trust that it was all going to come together. In the end, there seems to be a spiritual event that takes place for each individual who views the film. Two people can be sitting next to each other and each will take away a particular meaning. Interestingly, it still happens to us and we've seen the film hundreds of times. In the end what we all learned, cast and crew, was to surrender our own personal egos and let our individual Spirits unite as one. And the Maangamizi "family" is very close. Willie Dawkins, our African American cinematographer best describes it for all of us in terms of "before Maangamizi" and "after Maangamizi. Additionally, it was very difficult for a lot of the African Americans because one of our main locations, Bagamoyo had been the largest slave port in Africa. Bagamoyo is teeming with Spirits, as Queenae says, "it reminds me a lot of New Orleans." In fact, when someone in Tanzania has been offended they might quip, "tomorrow, I'm going to Bagamoyo" the inference being that a curse will be placed on you at that place. Indeed, the slave spirits are very much present and it could be quite overwhelming at times. "What saw us [as African Americans] through the pain of it was our incredible love for them (the Spirits) as our personal ancestors. These were our long lost relatives." (QTM)

6) How did the Tanzanians react to the story?

From the beginning they embraced the story as their own. Like most people they wanted to know how we came up with the idea. Originally, they thought it was a story that only Africans would relate to, they didn't think it would be embraced by Americans because they don't view Americans as processing life in a spiritual context, America is viewed as a materialistic culture. They have been pleasantly surprised by the audience reactions here in the US. The Tanzanian audiences immediately recognized the Spirit at work. Even though we had an international cast and crew comprised of Tanzanians, Americans, Australians, Kenyans, Brits and a Scottish actress the process became larger than any one culture. The ancestral Spirit became like a singular Being that each of us embraced and called our own--and that was the profound experience that we all shared. In the end, the Maangamizi Spirit supersedes everything--culture, language, race, religion, creed-- because its essence is Spirit.
 
7) How did Jonathan Demme and Cyril Neville become involved?

In 1994, Queenae saw Cyril Neville at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, Cyril had expressed an interest in doing film scores, once he read the script he immediately came on board the project. He has supported the project from the beginning and the majority of the score was done in 1996 during Jazz Fest. Cyril spoke very highly of the film and shared his praises with his friend, Jonathan Demme. In 1996 Jonathan came on as Executive Producer and helped us return to Tanzania to complete shooting in 1997.