Jimmy, ‘The Real Vinyl Guru’.
Vimeo Call for Submissions: Small Businesses Video Grant
The Story
The film is a semi-stylised mini-documentary cutting between Jimmy and his son Ndegwa as they organise their online livestream. Facetime, screen capture from live audiences and split-screen contrast with handheld shots and a traditional observational documentary style with a cinematic approach. The aesthetic demonstrates the rupture and connection of distance; between old and new, still and moving. The poetic and the abrupt meet to show how the classic format of the record is adapting to tech to keep things spinning during these strange and uncertain times.
The Record Store
Stall 570 is the only one of it’s kind in Kenya’s Nairobi metropolis. At the centre of a market, between butchers and hair salons, one of Africa’s oldest record dealers has stood here, operating from the same spot since 1989. He’s supported his family and seen his kids through school through selling vinyl alone. A city staple that has stood the test of times, linking the past to the present stocking records from Jazz to Blues, Soul and Funk, Rhumba, Bhenga and everything in between. Monday to Sunday, ten to six his business has stood the test of times, through the birth of the tape and the mp3, despite the threat of terrorism and political turmoil, beyond piracy, online streaming, Kenya’s ‘ban on the boogie’ in the 70s… and the Y2K. Change is something Jimmy’s always had to navigate but the pandemic presents something beyond anything he’s ever faced before.
“Not sure I've ever seen anything near this since 1989 when I opened shop 570 in Kenyatta Market, Nairobi. Not even the post-election nonsense that occurs every five years, including the worst one of year 2007.” - Jimmy
Jimmy
The man, the legend, Jimmy, an iconic record dealer, crate-digger and vinyl player resuscitator, has almost single handedly revived the vinyl industry in East Africa.
The Film
Early morning, geese are running around a rural farm just outside Kenya’s capital. An old man drinking a cuppa tea, holding a saxophone stands next to his vintage classic 1967 Peugeot 404. With restrictions on movement in and out of the city, he can’t make his daily ride to work. Jimmy, an iconic record dealer, crate-digger and vinyl player resuscitator, has almost single handedly revived the vinyl industry in East Africa.
Back in Nairobi, an uncanny spitting image of his old man — right down to the newsboy cap, his son Ndegwa mans the shop, looking for new ways to reach his dad’s customer base. Record Store Day is approaching, plans to host the annual street jam at Stall 570 are on hold. Piles of dusty records and lifeless vintage players are stacked in every corner of available space, but there’s not a customer in sight.
Jimmy sits in a composed frame in a big chair in his living room, surrounded by treasure and music memorabilia, the camera is committed to the stillness of this moment. Manu Dibango plays on loop. He takes a drag of a cigarette and gets down to telling us his journey from Kenya’s Golden Age of boogie to now. He hasn’t shut his store in 30 years, but must now come to terms with the impact of a pandemic which has brought his business and the world to a grinding halt like nothing else could.
The camera travels between Jimmy’s rural home and store bizarrely set in a meat market. He’s persevered through local and global crises before. This is no different. He must adapt to keep this portal to the past alive. This year he’s gearing up to take the party online.
MOOD / STYLE
“Vinyl consumption won't go away soon.”
Jimmy remains adament, “Life now seems like a loooong horror movie! I fear we could have to close down, there's nothing to do but sanitize hands and sit! But I have never considered doing anything else at all. Vinyl consumption won't go away soon.”
Kenyatta Meat Market, where jimmy has set up shop for the past 30 years.
World Record Store Day festival
Jimmy hosts an annual street jam at Stall 570, foreign travellers and collectors from all over Kenya come to celebrate.
Jimmy lives atop of a tea planation
Jimmy’s whip - a classic 1967 Peugeot 404
We will use incorporate split-screen aesthetics to make the connection between Jimmy and his son — separated by
the pandemic
and an invisible
new line
along the city’s periphery,
but connected by music…
… live-streaming under lockdown
Jimmy estimates, that he has between 100,000 and 150,000 records in in his store.
Video Reference
Cape Town-born director Jacques Naude’s directional debut, Overberg, is a colourful study of man and nature in rural South Africa. Read more on NOWNESS - http://bit.ly/2kJJM0U
Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music." —Bertrand Russell
“A spinning silver platter. No more dragging needles across grooves and vinyl... This music is c0mPUT3r c0nTRoLled.”
The film will include creative commons vintage CD advertisements.
A documentary directed by Helena Appio about Mr Pink—a resident of Lewisham, South London, and the house he loved.
Portrait of a Place: I Come for Peace