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Craig Foster
Award-winning Filmmaker, Geo-Artist
Inspired talent is a God-given gift to
be cherished and nurtured. Sometimes
though, this compulsive drive to create
can also be accompanied by feelings of
insecurity and self consciousness.
According to acclaimed filmmaker Craig
Foster, this is a dilemma faced by many
artists. “There is a great deal of angst
that often accompanies works of art. The
ego continually seeks validation and
suffers tremendously because of its
constant need for approval. As an
artist, if one’s work is well received,
the ego is somehow healed, though most
times only temporarily.”
Craig has had firsthand experience of
this. His film The Great Dance won a
host of international accolades, yet he
found himself mired in a debilitating
depression for months on end. Craig
attributes this to his attachment to the
ego, which he describes as a small,
limited and misperceived sense of
identity.
Craig finally turned to the ancient
wisdom of Africa. Beginning to work at
the deepest Shamanic levels, he overcame
his depression through a deeply
transformative and liberating
experience.
“After practising a number of rituals
taught to me by sangomas and hunter
healers, I experienced what the Bushman
call ‘the little death’”. For a brief
while Craig stepped out of his finite,
limited identity into what he calls “an
expanded state of cosmic consciousness.”
For this talented cinematographer, the
experience forever altered his lens on
life. “By encountering alternate realms
of existence, this world, which I’d
taken to be a certain reality in the
past, now seemed so fragile and
illusionary. While we’ve lost our
ability to connect with this state,
experiences of transcendence have been a
part of all cultures and were in the
past quite commonplace”.
Since emerging from his transformation,
reflections of this experience are
echoed in almost all of his work.
Whether creating sand sculptures that
represent the geometric shapes that he
witnessed during the experience to his
ochre paintings on rocks and his
photographic stills images, Craig has
sought to capture and preserve his
encounter through creative expression.
Today Craig and his younger brother
Damon, are co-owners of Sense Africa, a
production company dedicated to telling
stories which honour Africa, its nature
and its people. From the exploration and
preservation of indigenous heritage, to
uncovering the roots of African
cosmology and showcasing our continents
indigenous solutions to climate change,
they together strive to tell their
stories with sensitivity and integrity
and, most importantly, in the voice of
Africa itself.
“Our true identity is infinitely more
vast than we can ever imagine.”
www.senseafrica.com |
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