How the tortoise cracked its shell is an animated short film made by Kamal Adisa based on a classic West African folktale. The project initially started off as research on African folktales and their cultural importance.
Kamal Adisa is a Nigerian born storyteller currently based in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Parsons School of Design with a major in Communication Design and a minor in Filmmaking. His background is primarily in graphic design and video editing, although he currently works a lot with 2D and 3D motion.
Speaking on the inspiration behind it, the filmmaker says “Looking into the role it played within communities, I began to reimagine how these stories can exist in the modern world and what relevance it would have. It turned out to be a lot more relevant than I expected and the more the story unfolded, the more connections were made to current affairs. I realized these stories need to be preserved and kept within the current dialogue, not just as a documentation of the past but as a reminder of the present reality.”
