FILMMAKING IN KENYA: INTRODUCTION

When I was a little boy in a little backwater town known as Migori, movies were popular and people; village people, used to go and watch them. The video halls were dingy and dark and the damages were a paltry 10 shillings for every title but these makeshift theatres were always full. Every Monday at school, the kids whose parents had allowed them to go and watch a film over the weekend would be surrounded at break time by eager listeners straining to hear the latest escapades of Bruce Lee, Commando (Schwarzenegger), Van Damme, or Rambo (Stallone). I was always one of the listeners as my parents had a no film-watching policy ever since some hapless idiot had started a fight in one of the video halls and gotten stabbed(no doubt inspired by an action flick). Nonetheless, these narrations were my first introduction to film, a subject that would later become a life obsession and(hopefully) a lucrative career.
Part of this intrigue (I'm only human) came from the glamour and lifestyle associated with the art of filmmaking. A lifestyle that being a filmmaker in this country seems more and more unable to provide.

As one of Kenya's best-known filmmakers Wanuri Kahiu puts it:

"It's ridiculously difficult to be a filmmaker in Kenya, it's just not an appreciated art. I am a filmmaker when I'm outside the country -- in Kenya, I'm a hustler, someone who's just trying to make ends meet. Every month it's like, 'Oh it's a miracle, I made rent!"

A slew of factors coincide within the modern Kenyan context to create an atmosphere where films, especially locally made films, are unable to attract audiences to theaters in sufficient numbers to be profitable and/or are unable to appeal to local buyers and make enough DVD sales to break even. The five most pertinent of these I believe are:

Marketing & Distribution: The inability of Kenyan filmmakers to use existing media both to promote and exhibit their films, and to reach potential buyers who are willing to purchase either viewing tickets or home copies. Where for example(apart from a film festival) can I, a common fellow from Migori, watch or purchase any of the recent widely acclaimed Kenyan films? I mean of course films like  Pumzi, Soul Boy, From a Whisper or In My Genes. 
Capital: Money money money! No explanation needed here, films cost money to make and it is never easy to raise the money. What are the possible options? 
Theme and Content Issues: Majority of African and perhaps Kenyan films are funded by external/foreign donors due to factor number two above. You could say that these donors have an influence over the views represented in the films since most usually have a cause or other and subsequently most films thus made are openly didactic with some pertinent issue or the other to expose and educate upon. But in all my childhood years I never heard narrated at break time(or ever), an AIDS awareness film! Truth is, didactic films are never commercially viable projects and though a filmmaker can make a decent living from documentaries and such, it is not what I had in mind when I first said "I want to be a filmmaker". Where are the stories; Just the stories?! 
Quality(Production and Script): It doesn't matter how good the production quality is if the story is not interesting. HD cannot rescue a bad script. Those are the facts. It matters though if the film is expected to compete with other commercial films, to invest in good production quality. Writing is I believe, the least appreciated aspect of filmmaking in Africa in particular and the world in general.

Locally, a good example to look at is the film SHUGA that took an overdone didactic theme(AIDS awareness) and using a mixture of great scriptwriting, great acting and good cinematography, turned it into probably the best production to be shown on Kenyan screens in a very long time. 
PIRACY: The bane of every artist's existence. Internet penetration and computer literacy in Kenya are both only going to get better, which means more, not less piracy will be happening. With a government that doesn't seem to understand copyright law at all, an 'almost impossible to police' universe of file sharing and downloads, and the ability to create unlimited copies of digital content(e.g. DVDs) at extremely low prices; all these in an environment of unemployment, Kenyan filmmakers have no idea what they're up against. Actually, no one does. Not even Hollywood with all its might and money.

In subsequent posts, I will try to tackle each one of these five issues with an insider's view of the Kenyan situation. The idea is to help filmmakers like myself figure out a way to get the villagers in my little backwater town back in those dingy halls spending money on films again. Kenyan films.

Hoping you will join me again…….and again……and on facebook.