How a last meal of ‘gari and sugar’ motivated this young man to fame

Life has a way of presenting challenges and difficulties, but one’s determination to overcome the hurdles is the ultimate test.

Young Francis Y. Brown was presented with such a situation where he found himself ‘alone’ despite the fact that he had living family members who could help him.

He says complications with his family made it such that, he literally had to work his way around staying in school to achieve his dreams of being an animator.

Getting enrolled in the National Film and Television Institute was a start for him. He managed to get the support from a few friends and management to pull through but after school, even a place to lay his head was a problem.

But he ‘begged’ for a place to stay on campus so he could work and pay for the space. On one such very ‘dry’ day when he had nothing but gari which he had to add to his friend’s sugar to eat, he decided to ponder over life.

It was at this point he says, that an idea for an animation piece which unknown to him, would start his journey to fame, came to him.

Speaking to GhanaWeb’s Wonder Ami Hagan on the “People and Places” show, he recounted events as that led to the production of his very first animation work; The Beggar.

“there was this time at the NAFTI hostel, that’s where I was staying. One day I was staying there, I didn’t have anywhere to go for vacation so I will plead with the administrators to let me stay so I stay and pay something small.

“So I was there and I wasn’t having anything to eat, honestly, I wasn’t having money, all that I had was gari, and a friend of mine was also having sugar, so we had water and mixed it up. But as we were doing this mix, we started pondering on life and we were like, so if we should die now, we would have family members coming to cry and spend money.

“No matter what, they’ll pay for tent, pay for chairs, pay for minerals for people to come and eat, but meanwhile, what killed us? Maybe hunger. So as we were saying this, I said this is a beautiful idea for a concept for an animation film, so I will work on it.

“So I started working on it and the opportunity availed itself for me to make it public and I went to show it and when we came back, the rector of the school called me, congratulated me, saying that I had really made the school proud, so that gave me a lot of confidence in my storytelling,” he explained.

According to Francis, that was the first step to attaining his dreams of being an animator. Today, with hard work and a great team, Francis Y. Brown, who now owns his own animation studio, Animax FYB, has gained recognition on several international platforms. He has also had the opportunity to work with some of these international bodies through his work, to put Ghana on the global map.

“The beggar is my very first work, I produced it in the year 2009, and anytime I look at it, “The beggar” is what actually propelled me and gave me the confidence because when I was producing it, I didn’t have any idea about editing or the real idea behind animation but I had the passion to tell a story and there was a film conference going on which was allowing filmmakers to present their works and for students also to present their works and I was determined to go into that.

“It was at CPA at the British Council which was organized by John Akomfrah, the British filmmaker. So after producing “The Beggar”, a very good friend of mine from school told me “hey, I don’t think you should present this film” I asked why and he said, “I don’t think it looks good, you are going to embarrass yourself”.

"I said you know what, leave me alone, I’m going to show it and when he was saying this, we were in a bus going and I was rendering this work on someone’s laptop, so once we got there, we were asked to show the work, and after showing it, I had a standing ovation, almost for 5 minutes and I was surprised because that was my first film. But it wasn’t too much of the technicalities but rather the story I was telling,” he added.

Watch Animax FYB Studio CEO, Francis Y. Brown tell his full story in this edition of People and Places: