As Matabeleland and Goat travelled the world this year, one thing became clear: the edit rooms behind these projects played a huge role in shaping their impact. 

At the centre of that work is Jordan Inaan, whose journey from assistant editor to leading major projects has been one of the standout growth stories within our community. With two very different films under his belt in 2024/2025, a political documentary and a supernatural fiction,  Jordan has refined a process rooted in curiosity, collaboration, and emotional truth. We sat down with him to talk about his path, the lessons he’s learned, and what he’s excited to explore next.

1. Let’s start from the beginning, how did your journey into editing start, and what first drew you to this craft?

My editing journey goes way back when I used to mess around with my sister’s camcorder. I remember spending days putting together a 30 second birthday video for her and it was amazing to me how separate individual clips could come together to convey a greater idea. Over the years that fascination has grown into much more, a responsibility to help shape other people’s stories.  

2. You’ve grown from being an assistant editor to leading major projects like Matabeleland and Goat this year. Looking back, what moments or lessons have shaped you the most along the way?

I can’t particularly single out moments, but I know the people who have shaped my journey. Sam Soko has held me through this journey, with much grace and guidance. He has created a space that encourages growth, like a ‘creative garden’, and has really enabled not only me but many others to constantly stretch their potential. He allowed me into edit rooms where I got to watch and absorb a lot of creative conversations. From this I learnt that editing isn’t about showing what you can do or flexing technical abilities, it’s listening and  negotiating, it’s learning and unleaning, doing and undoing until together we figure out what to say and how to say it. This mindset shift, I feel, has shaped me more than anything. 

3. Matabeleland and Goat are worlds apart, one is a political and historical documentary, the other a supernatural folk fiction. How different was your process for each, and what did work across these genres teach you about storytelling?

I agree, they are worlds apart, but behind the scenes the process is surprisingly very similar. The goal of the process is to uncover a core emotional truth that is buried beneath the intention of making these films. Despite the thematic differences, at the core they are both love stories, and that’s the authenticity that the audience connects to. Within the year I also edited another love story as part of the somefineday program, so it seems to have been my year of finding love on the screen!   

4. What’s your favorite part of the edit process?

My favourite part of the edit process is when we put together scenes that may seem completely unrelated but they unlock new and creative perspectives that we may have overlooked. This may get us past a certain creative/story hurdle or it may bring to rise new questions that may force us to change creative direction. Either way we gain some momentum that helps us advance the story further. I think there’s something magical about that moment when ideas connect. It gives the edit process that puzzle-solving aspect that I really enjoy.   

5. You’ve now worked with directors like Nyasha Kadandara, Sam Soko, and Judy Kibinge, each with distinct voices. How do you adapt your approach when collaborating with different directors?

First of all, I feel very lucky and privileged to work with such brilliant directors, whom I deeply admire. It helps that they have distinct creative voices so it has been fairly easy to align with. I try to understand eahc director’s perspective and try to test out how they respond visually, emotionally, structurally etc to try and get a feel of their boundaries. My job then becomes to narrow down to their wavelength by asking lots of questions, listening and trying to create a space where they can feel safe to express themselves and explore different ideas. 
 

6. Finally, what’s next for you? Are there particular stories, styles, or collaborators you’re hoping to explore more in the future? 

At the moment I’m excited to keep stretching myself across genres. Having just done a demo for an American sports betting doc, It showed me that there’s a broad range of subjects and subject matters to explore. The world is in many ways a weird and interesting place, depending on the lenses through which you look at it, and I’m curios to wear different lenses and see different things.