How One Photo Changed Everything (a fish tale)

Sunday seems like the right time to tell a big fish story, so I was happy when I stumbled across director Kibwe Tavares's, "JONAH". It's a visually impressive fiction that begins with every photographer's worst nightmare (a stolen camera) and becomes the tale of how one photo changed everything. Well, one photo and some masterful visual effects executed by Factory Fifteen and Jellyfish Productions. Watch the follow-up, "JONAH MAKING OF" for a peek into how it was all achieved.

I couldn't watch this without thinking of our very own Noam Galai's real life story, “Stolen Scream”.

Factory Fifteen: “Mbwana and his best friend Juma are two young men with big dreams. These dreams become reality when they photograph a gigantic fish leaping out of the sea and their small town blossoms into a tourist hot-spot as a result. But for Mbwana, the reality isn't what he dreamed – and when he meets the fish again, both of them forgotten, ruined and old, he decides only one of them can survive. Jonah is a big fish story about the old and the new, and the links and the distances between them. A visual feast, shot though with humour and warmth, it tells an old story in a completely new way.”

A Stray Bear Production in association with Jellyfish Pictures
From the imagination of Factory Fifteen
Directed by Kibwe Tavares
Written by Jack Thorne
Produced by Ivana MacKinnon
Starring
Daniel Kaluuya
Malachi Kirby
and Louis Mahoney
Town VFX: Factory Fifteen
Fish VFX: Jellyfish Pictures
Executive Producers - Katherine Butler, Ollie Madden, Chris Collins, Phil Dobree, Eva Yates
Co-Producer Fiz Oliver
Line Producer – Sarah Jane Wheale
Editor - Adam Biskupski
Cinematographer - Chloe Thomson
Production Designer: Paul Nicholls and Jonathan Gales
Fish Concept Art – Warren Holder
Composer – Mark Sayfritz
Sound Design - Jens Petersen
Sound Recordist – Will Whale
Costume Designer– Celia Lusted
Casting Directors – Saheen Baig & Aisha Walters