BimaStagg
Writer 1945–2021
About Bima 1945 – 2021
Bima Stagg was an American writer, filmmaker, reader, thinker, builder and creative polymath. At home in the US, Europe and Africa, by any measure, his life was filled with remarkable experiences and people of every background and viewpoint.
With quantum levels of intelligence, charm and a futuristic outlook, he believed in justice, a key theme that informed his life and work. He existed and created at the vanguard of the cultural and social movements of his time.
Attending Columbia University in New York led to a meeting with Andy Warhol in 1964. Inspired by Kip and his matinee idol intensity, Andy and Kip (as Bima was known then) collaborated on 4 films together, including the controversial, only once screened Beauty with Edie Sedgwick. More than a muse, Kip worked behind the scenes using his contacts and experience in film to expedite the lab processing of Warhol's films. Kip and Andy struck up a friendship and he became an fixture at The Factory on and off for the next several years.
With hands as eloquent as words, when not writing he loved to make real his ideas in material form. This combination of the intellectual and the physical lead to a wide range of careers and pursuits, from: graphic artist, audiophile, fashion designer, geodesic architect, magazine editor, instrument builder, pub designer, law book editor, and inventor of Quantum Chess.
Moving to the UK in 1970 to join a Sufi commune, Kip became Bima. As handy with a socket wrench as a typewriter, he worked as a mechanic for Landrover disassembling engines. This later came in handy when he had to reassemble a boat engine halfway between Brazil and South Africa, during a hurricane, with spare parts he fashioned by hand, using only a Swiss Army knife… saving 7 lives, including his own.
In his newly adopted homeland of South Africa he wrote and co-starred in his first feature, 1976's Death of a Snowman, also known as Soul Patrol. Described by critics as "tough and taut, and never let's up" it provocatively pairs a black journalist with a white detective during Apartheid and since become a staple on every definitive Blaxploitation movie list. This was quickly followed by a screen adaptation of Jackie Collins's bestseller The Stud, a tabloid-fueled comeback hit for sister Joan Collins as Fontaine Khaled, an amoral nightclub owner who treats her manager as a sexual plaything, the film was a cultural flashpoint—partly due to the film's infamous fuckswing scene. Regarded as either a pioneering work of sexual feminism or a tawdry cash-in exercise – depending on who you ask.
In the 1980s, as the struggle against Apartheid ramped up, Bima dedicated himself personally and professionally to the movement, ultimately creating a trilogy of South African films tackling the theme of justice through different lenses. In 1997, his political thriller, INSIDE won Bima the PEN Center USA Award for Best Teleplay and became legendary American new wave Director Arthur Penn's last feature, and judged top ten films ever screened at the Cannes Directors Fortnight. His last film Stander, based on the true tale of conflicted South African detective/bank robber Andre Stander, is a white knuckled moral rampage through peak '70's Apartheid, disguised as a bank robber movie. Beloved in South Africa (and growing base of fans worldwide) this film is also on it's way to cult status.
Bima's lifelong love and study of science, history, philosophy, literature, art, music, spirituality, made him a fascinating raconteur that kept rooms of people rapt. An incisive intellect he was supremely confident, yet also profoundly humble. Above all Bima loved and believed in humanity. A week before he passed, attending a dinner surrounded by loving friends old and new, he was in his element, opening hearts and blowing minds.
A striving, influential, creative, brilliant mind and sweet generous soul to so many. He will be lovingly remembered and greatly missed by his family and friends in the US and around the world. He is survived by his son Jesse, sister Jarryl and his many cousins, nieces and nephews.
Bima leaves behind a rich archive of unpublished work. Information on future adaptations and releaeses and publications will be posted here. Nothing would make him happier.
