COMMERCIAL WORK

LUCK IS ALIVE - MAMI WATA
GIANT FILMS, STINK FILMS

Shortlist

Title of Piece:	LUCK IS ALIVE
Brand:	MAMI WATA
Production Company:	GIANT FILMS, STINK FILMS
Director(s):	PAUL WARD
Producer(s):	JO BARBER
Agency:	MAMI WATA IN HOUSE
Client:	MAMI WATA
Instagram Tag:	@b_d_s_______ @mamiwatasurf @stinkfilm @giantfilmsza
Short Synopsis:	The film was created to support the launch of our Spring Summer ‘22 range of apparel and opening of a six month pop-up store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice, Los Angeles. Both the SS22 range of clothing and accessories and the film have at their heart a theme: “Luck is Alive”. One of the distinctive characteristics of African surf culture, particularly in West Africa, is a belief in animism. It’s a touchpoint that makes surf culture in Africa different from surf cultures elsewhere in the world. Animism is based on the idea that everything is sentient: that inanimate objects, plants, animals or even entities such as rivers, the weather or the ocean have an individual spirit. Mami Wata researched the ways in which an animistic outlook influences graphic design and visual culture in contemporary West African cities, such as Dakar, Senegal, and expanded on them in the designs of its SS22 collection. Motifs such as eyes, for example, are often painted onto buses in Dakar to indicate their sentience. A more universal understanding of animism is inherent in the idea of luck. Mami Wata developed the symbol of the dice with a six on all sides to indicate the idea that “Luck is Alive”. The idea of luck and relating to it as if it had humanistic qualities, is something a wide range of cultures, including Westerners, can relate to. The film tells the story of a young man in Dakar – a surfer who is both an animist and a Muslim (and a brand ambassador for Mami Wata). Our dreadlocked protagonist longs to surf, and believes that luck will take him to the ocean. He becomes obsessed with dice, the symbol of the luck that will take him there. And indeed, by its force, he makes his way to the sea. The surfer plunges into the water, is captured (or rescued) with Mami Wata, the spirit of the ocean, and is transformed. He emerges as a surfer, twice transfigured by the spirit of luck and of the ocean itself.