I arrived in New York, 10 days ago a large, unkempt, pile of smelly, travel-trodden Wanuri littering the polished sophisticated-ness of the Gild Hall Hotel, Wall Street. Any remaining dribbles of energy I had after the 23 hour plane ride from Cape Town had been spent up ‘ohhing’ and ‘ahhing’ at bumble-bee yellow Nu Yark taxi cabs, the steaming man-holes, bridges, American accents, landscapes that gave you vertigo in reverse. I mean, Nairobi is a city – New York- it’s a beast.

Every trip through NY has been life moving. Seven years ago, I travelled to New York for a film school interview. The MFA program at UCLA. This time I was invited to participate in a summit weekend as one of the filmmakers from Africa chosen to participate in the Africa First filmmakers program run by Focus. Maybe that thing ‘they’ say about the 7-year cycle of life might actually mean something. Hmm…

This year, I made my first feature film. It hasn’t won any awards (yet) but it has been well received in Kenya. And a couple months later, I was in New York, broke as hell (who said Film-makers made money) and awake. I think up until that point I had been doing the living thing. Working, paying bills, worrying, loving, heartbreaking, bleeding then I got to New York and I was a film-maker. It says so on my passport.

Before this point, Focus was the company for me. In the same way people talk about ‘the’ one for themselves, Focus was ‘the’ one in the depths of my story’s dreams. I swear. I’m not kissing ass. Every time I see those blue, green, yellow circles I get excited. I do. Still. Always have. So when I say the call for entries, I swear my heart did a barpt-bup-bup. I could hear the universe smiling. So when I say ‘thank you’ to Kisha and Matt (the organisers of the Africa First Program) they have no clue, no understanding of the depth of it. And I’m not alone. Ask Jan Hendrik (South Africa) and Jenna (South Africa) and Dyana (Senegal/ Paris) and Edouard (Rwanda). Not that we are defined by our nations but are instead a spread, a representation of a new age of storytellers.