Youthful directors: Nairobi appears to be the next stop for Rwanda Cinema Centre’s Daddy Youssouf Ruhoroza and Kenyan up-and-coming filmmaker, Jinna wa Mutene, whose snap was taken in Kampala, Uganda

Kenya will be treated to an annual International Children’s Film Festival beginning August 2006. This follows the birth of Lola Kenya Children’s Screen, a film festival and production workshop for children and youth to run in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The announcement was made at the Southern African International Film & Television Market, Sithengi, and Cape Town World Cinema Festival in Cape Town, South Africa, by Ogova Ondego, the CEO of ComMattersKenya Limited of Nairobi, Kenya, on November 14, 2005. And to set the ball rolling, the newly-launched Lola Kenya Screen film festival will hold its first monthly forum for filmmakers and film enthusiasts on December 15, 2005 at Goethe-Institut, Nairobi.

Award-winning experimental filmmaker Willie Owusu

Willie Owusu’s 15-minute experimental film, Two Chics, One Guy And A Plate Of Chips, will be screened followed by some discussion on ‘Making Short Films on Zero Budget’. Such fora are intended to bring together producers, directors, exhibitors, marketers, actors, critics, writers and other players in the sector to discus the way forward for Kenya’s audio-visual sector. This is one of Lola Kenya Screen’s initiatives aimed at turning Kenya’s film sector into a vibrant industry.

With its maiden edition scheduled for August 7-12, 2006, this festival, production workshop and market whose first name is derived from a Bantu language word meaning ‘watch’, ‘see’ or ‘look’, will seek to cultivate sustainable audiences for cinema, inculcating in people the habit of producing quality films, and marketing audiovisual productions. Lola Kenya Screen was mooted in October 2005 to demystify film production by making it accessible to new, up and coming talents. The initiative also seeks to build a sustainable audience for films besides promoting a film-going culture.

Ondego said that “the festival will not only focus on films for children and youth, short films, and African films, but will also hold production workshops annually with the aim of making at least five short films that will be screened at Lola Kenya Screen and be showcased around the world.” This is a development that appears to have come at the right time when Kenya was just waking up to the realisation that filmmaking is a serious development communication tool that not only communicates national pride, identity and confidence in the people, but also helps them develop their society.

The past few years have seen many people set up small ad-hoc production units that cater for the needs of artists who are excited about playing for the screen and for music videos. Their technical deficiency notwithstanding, such producers—mainly based on down town Nairobi’s River Road section, are cutting out their niche among consumers who crave for local productions.

Film director Wanjiru Kinyanjui and theatre actor Maroro appear to be reminiscing on the state of the rundown Kenya National Theatre, Nairobi

There has never been a vibrant audiovisual forum catering for special interest groups that brings these players together with the audience and other international players for exchange and creation of a market in Nairobi. Although Kenya is East Africa’s audiovisual capital judging by her history, the number of producers, production houses, productions and audience capacity, the lull amongst Kenya’s audiovisual players has given way for other players in the region to take the lead. Perhaps it is such ripples in the regional audiovisual waters that have challenged and inspired the organisers of Lola Kenya Screen to organize a festival aimed at cultivating a sustainable audience for films, and promoting such films through exhibitions.

Making the announcement, Ondego said that “Lola Kenya Screen is aimed at making film production accessible to new, up and coming talents and cultivating a sustainable audience for African films.” Ondego who is an arts and culture journalist and film critic covering major film festivals around the world, was the first Kenyan director of the French-funded African Cine Week of Nairobi in 2003 and works with and consults for various film festivals in Africa besides sitting on various film juries around the world.

Teaming up with Ondego on this initiative is Wanjiru Kinyanjui, a film director and screenwriter. Kinyanjui has worked as soundwoman, camerawoman, camera assistant, sound assistant and assistant director. Both Kinyanjui and Ondego have trained in Berlin, Germany; the former in film directing and the latter in management and organisation of film and television festivals and markets. Ondego and Kinyanjui are working with producers, researchers, marketers, regulators, writers and journalists at various stages on this venture.

‘Pleased to take a snap with you’, Ogova Ondego appears to be telling Sandra Steinle of Switzerland in this picture taken in Berlin in February 2005

The festival management is going to benefit from an advisory board comprising leading voices on arts and culture in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas, and selected children and young people from schools.

As the first festival of its kind in the eastern African region, Lola Kenya Screen will serve as the region’s melting pot for Kenyan, African and overseas productions, talent, broadcasters, technical and technology service providers, other related service providers and marketers of products, services and values targeting children and the youth. Through the festival’s publicity and production workshops that would encourage international collaborations, Lola Kenya Screen would also contribute towards opening up Kenya’s audiovisual potential which includes unrivalled shooting locations that make Kenya a film destination of choice.

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