Northampton filmakers could win '˜Best Video' award at the 2016 MOBOs

Lewis Levi, 22 and Alex Motlhabane, 27, of The Rest, have been shortlisted for the ‘Best Video’ category at the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) awards ceremony which will take place on November 4th, 2016.

The duo, who have known each other for more than ten years, have a reputation for creating fictional films and music videos with an “unapologetic view of the world".

Lewis said: “The Rest just organically happened, we’ve been doing creative stuff since we were 12-13. We were both in the same circles when we were younger and both did a film-making course at the University of Northampton, but at different times.

“We have the same ambition so we kind of just formed. We produce what we love.”

The film-making pair created the music video, ‘Footsteps’, which stars Kojey Radical, an artist who conveys poetry through rap.

Alex said: “We met Kojey at a live show, he then Tweeted us afterwards about a meet-up and the rest is history.

“Kojey Radical’s video was filmed in London just off Portobello Road. The last video we shot for Kojey got a great response.”

The Rest has been established for nearly two years and both Lewis and Alex have been invited to London to speak to prospective filmmakers at the Tate Modern about their profession.

Lewis added: “This was a big deal for us, the Tate Modern hold up artists, they are a huge institution. The fact they considered us is really cool.

The directors, who used to use Northampton as a backdrop for a lot of their work, had to change their location because they were getting kicked out of car parks and the town centre.

The duo told the Chronicle & Echo: “People come to us because we have a vision.”