‘From Marobela to the World’ for release in August
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday March 16, 2024 06:00
The documentary is a celebration of the athlete's career, the doping crisis, and the story of his Olympic medal almost being sold. However, the release comes at a time when Amos is mourning the loss of his grandmother, who raised him. Amos' documentary has been submitted at the 77th International Cannes Film Festival, which takes place from May 14-25.
The documentary is a collaboration of local film-producing companies and American-based Invictus World Wide and LCMC Company. The executive producer of the documentary, Carlos Pimentel, who is also president of Invictus World Wide, told MmegiSport said they started filming the documentary in 2019.
He said initially there was another company from Korea that Amos had engaged for the project but later changed his mind to work with the Americans. “I started following Amos when he won Botswana’s first Olympic medal in 2012. It was an honour for me when he approached me about the project. Filming continued even during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. We visited places where he was competing such as Monaco to get footage,” he said. Pimentel said some of the footage was shot in Eugene where Amos trained with the Oregon Track Club.
He said interviews were conducted with his teammates and coaches. He said other interviews for the documentary were made with his grandmother, family, school teacher, and Marobela village chief, amongst others. “I was invited to speak at a film festival in Botswana organised by the Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport, and Culture (MYSC), where I mentioned that Botswana should start exporting content. Amos, as a kid from Marobela village, carries the hopes of many children out there and it is only right for him to tell his story,” he said.
Pimentel said the film is a tell-all, including Amos' suspension from athletics due to doping, to his Olympics silver medal almost being sold. He said there are re-enactment scenes that were shot in Botswana using local actors. He said the background music used in the film is by local artists such as Culture Spears. Pimentel said their intention was also to give the documentary the Hollywood power. “Regarding funding, the film is self-sponsored. I worked with Motswana film producer, Ralph ‘Stagga’ Williams and Mana Seboni who is the local producer,' he said.
Seboni said she was the local producer but when it was time for shooting she transitioned to first assistant cinematographer.
“Being part of the documentary meant that I finally got an opportunity to tell a Botswana story of a Motswana. It is the first biopic I have worked on, everything else has been commercial, fictional, and historical but this documentary was the first of its kind where I had to deal with a real factual character. So there was a lot of fact-checking,” she said.
Seboni said there was no creativity or imagination to be used when it came to defining who the character was, as they had to stick to facts and real events, which was a new thing to her and it was interesting. “I have done some public service announcements, that is the closest documentary work I have done. So this would be the full first documentary work I have done and it has given me an appetite to do more about various topics, not just a bio about somebody,” Seboni said. She said the re-enactment is complete, edited and sent to merge with interviews of the people of Marobela as well.
Speaking to MmegiSport, Amos said he has a story to tell that he believes will inspire not only youngsters but the world. “My journey is more than what the eye meets. Now I am taking people behind the scenes. I strongly believe as pioneers we have to leave traces for what we have been part of growth,” he said. Amos said in the documentary, that they went through all season’s challenges, through COVID-19 and being side-lined from the track. The Olympic silver medallist said he was proud that the documentary is almost complete after four years of hard work.