Director Sara Chitambo on Why 'Black People Don't Get Depressed'

Chitambo initially intended to approach the film as a journalistic treatise; she would follow her medical doctor, friend and long-time mental health advocate, Dr. Sindi van Zyl ,on her battles with depression. But conversations with friends convinced the director that she needed to share her own story; to immerse herself in the thickets.

“It’s something I had to do for myself [in order to] have the courage to do a lot of other things I’ve been putting off because I just wasn’t confident enough,” Chitambo tells OkayAfrica.

The story arc took a sharp bend just 10 days into the COVID-19 lockdown period. “I was feeling very trapped. There were ways in which I was always able to run away from my mind. When lockdown happened, I had nowhere to [run to]. I was feeling so shifty,” she says.

Chitambo, who also has extensive experience as a project manager working in public health, realized then that she could not run away anymore.

Her own mental health journey has been filled with incredible twists. “I’ve been in therapy, on and off. I still don’t feel like I’ve found a therapist that gets it.” She bursts into a laughter that registers as an acknowledgement of how defeating, alienating and strange it can be: this seeking, finding, and having to seek again, with no guarantee that the next mental health professional will be the one who “gets it.”

“I still feel like there are a lot of ways that I’ve still not gotten the help I’ve needed. I’ve been looking for the solution because it hasn’t come.”

The film, which is also an official selection at the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival happening from June 20 to 30 in South Africa, is a personal journey with universal appeal. It is a private diary entry, a data cable connection point that, once activated, auto-connects to a global network where the societal expectations to be productive adults are co-opted by capitalism to mask our inner turmoil — to make us temporarily numb to our impending internal demise. “I am curious and optimistic enough about life to not have taken my own; to not succumb to dark thoughts,” she says.

The film encompasses its director’s many passions. The motifs that tie together the stories of the people featured — friends Chitambo has connected with during the 43 years she has been on this rock — are passions she has collected and formed an intimate connection with. There is African print fabric, music, poetry, travel, satire, sports, literature; a lot more that speaks to the diverse cultures of Black people.

She interviews Dr. van Zyl, who has since succumbed to COVID-19 complications, at her Johannesburg home to speak about the many ways we are shamed for having struggles with mental health. She visits Monwabisi Beach in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township to hang out with a youth-oriented initiative that uses surfing to offer a way out for young people from areas where daily encounters with various forms of violence have a negative impact. She speaks to mental health professionals and alternative healers to gain a thorough understanding of the different approaches to mental health treatment. She journeys home to Zambia to uproot the origins of her trauma. She connects with an old friend in Canada as he prepares for a show that is dear to his heart.

The film took a long time between conception and completion [from 2020 to 2024] due to the unavailability of funds. She applied for grants, she ran a crowdfunding campaign, she pulled in favors, and kept at it until the different parts came together. “We got selected for the Rough Cut Lab Africa, and through that we won prizes to actually finish our grading, to finish our on-line, and to finish our sound design with some partners of Rough Cut Lab who are based in Egypt,” Chitambo shares.

Chitambo continued post-production while working at her day job. “In-between, on weekends, after-hours, is when I would be with the editor, is when I’d be going to sit at Yellowbone Entertainment, who gave us the prize and really spend time with the grading artists. With prioritization, you fit in with what you’re going for and what you want to achieve,” she adds.

The entire process was a rigorous exercise, and the access to experts left Chitambo feeling fulfilled and enriched. She assummed the co-producer role on days when the producer couldn't be on set. She was also the researcher. And the director. “I [also] had to do a lot of the music selection because in the end, we didn’t have enough budget to bring on a composer.”

Creators are never really satisfied with their work, and for Chitambo, this film has been a good exercise in letting go. “What I hope is that what it’s supposed to do gets across. It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing at all points in the film, but that is what it is.”