In 2016, when his mother asked what gift to reward him with after emerging among the top five students in class, Shema’s only wish was a laptop. The first application he installed after receiving the laptop was a video editing application for beginners. The dream of becoming a video director professional started on that day.
The 22-year-old Poland-based Rwandan video director commonly known as Kevshema was born in Remera, Kigali, and is now regarded among Rwanda’s promising video directors and film makers.
In an interview with The New Times, the fast-rising video director shared his journey, experience and aspirations for his career.
Excerpts:
Who is Kevshema?
I am a second born in a family of three. I am a high school graduate at Ecole de science Byimana and I am currently pursuing engineering management in Poznan, Poland. I do everything that has anything to do with video. I do music videos, documentaries.
How would you describe your journey in videography?
My journey has been a rollercoaster if I am being honest. Starting as an amateur who just graduated from high school to the person I am today was not that easy. The fact that videography was a hobby since I was a teenager it made it more exciting and encouraging to keep doing what I enjoy doing the most. I fell in love with creating videos for a lot of reasons but one of them was when I watched a hit song by Amag the Black dubbed "Ziada”.
In 2020 summer, I decided to do film making and music video directing professionally and take it to the next level even though I had school. It was a side hustle that I am passionate about. I started off making 1 to 2 minutes videos with my friend for YouTube and luckily it caught attention of a Burundian singer based in Canada who became my first client. I later on met people like Alex, Carlos and Muhammed among others who helped me to get to places and meet people that I couldn’t at the time.
Do you make music videos only?
Not really, I make music videos, event videos, motivation and club videos, I also make videos for social media to connect me with my passion and entertain my followers as well.
Is it easy for a Rwandan video director in Poland to make it?
It is not that easy especially because of language barrier but having connections takes me places and helps a lot to get recognition which I learn a lot from along the way. It is not easy but it takes one to look for opportunities and knock on doors.
What are some of your biggest works and accomplishments?
My biggest project was a music video I made for a song that was produced by one of the biggest music producers in Africa Blaise Beats commonly known as Obah. I have worked with so many big musicians, local and foreign. Some of these artistes include Omah Lay, Kivumbi King, Buju, The urban song dancer, Musa Keys and Av among others.
I also worked on a motivation video called ‘How to find your purpose’ a story that helped me a lot to understand my purpose and find myself and the type of videos I had to focus on. It is an inspiration video that can help someone who is trying to find a path in life.
What plans do you have for your video directing career in the future?
I have been thinking a lot about my future plans in the film making industry and I mostly want to play a big role in raising the film industry in my country. I want to build my own film company and be among the best directors in history. I know it takes time but I am very committed to work very hard towards my dream. I can’t wait to be a great foundation to the success of the video directing industry in Rwanda.