Inner Sounds
Director Biography – Benjamin Shimwa
Benjamin Shimwa is a Malawian-Canadian poet, director, and editor. Benjamin has been writing narrative poems since the age of 13 and his love transitioned into writing stories and making videos that would bring his poetry to life. Seeing how much joy he got from making videos, Benjamin began creating fashion videos for models, promotional videos for his high school, and concept dance videos. They couldn’t see him, the director and youngest on set but his ancestors dreamed of him. Inner voice will mark his directorial debut. As a young and upcoming director Benjamin hopes to continue telling untold stories.
This project meant so much to me; it is my opportunity to tell untold stories. The stories that society seems to not acknowledge and deny. Inner Sounds is a short film about a man who lost his will to live because he lost the one thing he loves. This is reality for most people, mainly men. Most men are left to isolate and deal with their problem because being vulnerable has been seen as a sign of weakness. This is a huge problem in our society, inner voice is a step to help change this narrative. Every person that will see this movie will feel as if their story is being told.
That’s why It is important to make the project now because awareness has to be spread around the fact that a lot of great artists have given up because of their disabilities. Plenty of artists with disabilities will say things such as “I can’t draw because I lost my right arm”, or “ I will never make it because of my mental illness”, they are plenty of examples of it. In reality, your disability is not a disadvantage but a weapon to express yourself because pain creates the best art no matter how you slice it.
As previously stated, a lot of people think due to their circumstances and disabilities they can never be anything in their life. Inner voice challenges that mentality. Louis is a character who was a great singer, but he lost his ability to speak and decides to stop doing the one thing he loves, which causes him to go into depression. From this short film, people will understand that art speaks where words are unable to explain. Everyone at some point in their life has felt like they are fighting battles by themselves and no one is there for them. In reality, they will always be someone there for you, and all you have to do is ask for help.