The sixth edition of the Zanzibar Internatonal Film Festival (ZIFF)-organised Festival of the Dhow Countries opened in Zanzibar on June 28 with calls fior regional cooperation and international collaboraton.

Hassan Mitawi, chairman of ZIFF, noted that globalisation calls for a reflection on and application of cultures in order to make sense of the modern world. The highlights of the balmy Zanzibari evening were an electrifying performance by Sidi Goma, African Indians from Gujarat in India. They began with chants to their saint, Bava Gor, befor building up to throbbing drums and song accompanied by eye-catching dance moves that seemed to directly connect with he massive audience at Ngome Kongwe Amphitheatre in the historical Stone Town.

The performnce ended with an ecstatic dancer throwing a coconut very high in the air and then breaking it with his head in a perfect football style. It broke to pieces with its milk spilling all over and the audience going wild in ululation and amazement. "Hawa wachawi," a press photographer shouted several times before remembereing he was on the dut of shooting pictures for his employer. By the time he came to his senses and focused the camera, the performers were already walking off stage. Preceding Sidi Goma were dramatised Kiswahili poetry on the Dhow Countries and traditional Haya music by Maua (Praxeda Lweyendela), the newest music sensation from Bukoba, If she continues with her kind of performance, then reciording artiste Saida Karoli will have to work harder to stave off the growing competition. The songbird has already recorded Chenkula Akatambala (Come let's dance together) and is about to record another one tentaively titled Engonzi (cultivating love). Then Heremakono (Waiting for happiness) film by award-winning Mauritanian director Abderrhamane Cissako, was screened. This is a beautiful but controversial philosophical film that won the top Pan African Film Festival award in FESPACO on March 1.

Instead of opening he festival with national anthems as is usually the case, ZIFF began with popular songs of Zimbabwe, Somalia, Uganda and Kenya, Kenya's Gabriel Omollo's Nairobi Lunchtime song as redone by Nairobi City Ensemble of Tabu Osusa was n doub well received as it played longer than all the other songs. Over the next 15 days ZIFF is featuring more than 100 films, live music, dance, drama, and photographic and artistic exhibitions to showcase the cultures of the countries sharing the Indian Ocean.

Special panoramas for women, children and young adults, and villages, will tackle issues like women in the media, challenges of tradition and globalisation, and matters affecting children and young aduklts. It is expected that at the end of the two weeks, networking relationships among artists, media practitioners, policymakers, and other players in the media, culture, and arts fraternity will have developed for the wellbeing of humanity. Besides regional cooperation nad international collaboration, ZIFF is also exploring he themes of "peace", "home" and "migration." Awards, donated by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), will be presented to Best Feature, Beast Documentary, and Special Mention films. To qualify for the UNESCO awards, the film must be drawn from Africa, Indian Ocean islands, South Asia, Middle East, and their Diapora.

For the first time ZIFF is hosting the SIGNIS jury which will assess and reward films that "promote positive human values." Its members include Kenyans Alvito De Souza and Mary Gitau, Mauritian Gerard Sullivan, and Belgian Guido Huysmans. South African pay-TV channel M-Net will present a bronze troph o the best film under its new Directions umbrella. Kenya, with five films including the Academy Award-winning Nowhere in Africa, is registering a strong presence at ZIFF as the prime african filming location. This is a German film made in Kenya by Caroline Link that won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar last March. Dangerous Affair and Aftermat of Judy Kibinge, The day I wil never Forget by Kim Longinotto of Britain, and Naliaka is going of Albert Wandago are other productions that are putting focus on kenya in Zanzibar.

Dangerous Affair, a staright-video film by Baraka Films of Njeri Karago, will battle it out for the top ZIFF prize with Heremakono of Abderrhamane Cissako that won the FESPACO cake, the Yennenga Stallion last March. Other contenders are from South Africa, Sri Lanka, and India.

Running Dry and Wanted dead or alive by Simon Trevor of Kenya are in the documentary film competition.

But perhaps the best news for Kenya will be the world premier of Naliaka is going feature on July 4. Director Wandago, accompanied by main stars Stephanie Benta Ochieng and Kenneth Ambani, will be in Zanzibar for the launch at Cine Afrique theatre. This launch will also confirms Kenya's position as the leading film nation in East Africa. Naliaka is going, a 90-minute video film, is directed by Albert Wandago, the award winning director of Metamo and a jury member (short films) at he 18th Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO). T his international launch will precede the Kenyan one scheduled for July 30 at Nairobi Cinema where it will run twice a day for 12 days till August 10. This is the first time a local film will be running in a theatre for this long. Naliaka is going will also be screened at Tivoli Cinema in Kisumu town and Nyali Cinemax in Mombasa on what director Wandago describes as an experiment. A major media campaign will precede the launch and the screenings in Kisumu, Nairobi and Mombasa. Stars of the film, stage actress Benta Stephanie Akinyi Ochieng and screen actor Kenneth Sammy Muigai Ambani, will accompany Wandago to Zanzibar for the historical launch. The launch of this film will no doubt add flavour to Zanzibar, already world-famous for its spices, warm blue waters, narrow streets and alleys without sidewalks, and an extremely friendly people. Shot in Nairobi, and the western and coastal regions of Kenya, Naliaka stars Ochieng as Naliaka, a 14-year-old girl who drops out of school to work as a domestic worker (house girl) to sustain her family and see her brother through college. Never content with her plight, however, Naliaka learns typing and improves her spoken and written English with the assistance of her employer's children who attend good schools in Kenya's metropolis. When her father learns that Naliaka plans to seek better paying employment as a typist, he decides to marry her off to his fellow-drinking village mate. But Naliaka escapes back to the city where she quickly realises that she has jumped from the frying pot and into the fire.

Scripted by Brutus Sirucha, Naliaka is going is produced by Alwan Communications in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Information with partial funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). While Ochieng is almost legendary on the theatre scene in Nairobi where she works with groups like Heartstrings Kenya, Phoenix Players, The Courtyard Theatre, Mbalamwezi Players, and Tufani Arts Ensemble, Ambani is a well known and loved screen personality starring mainly in commercials. Ochieng, who attended Nairobi River Primary School and Ngara Girls' School, is currently appearing in Reflections, a soap production of Kenya Broadcasting . Corporation.Among her achievements is winning the Best Actress award at the Schools Drama Festival in Nairobi Province in 1995.

African viewers of television will readily recognise Ambani who comes in their living rooms on TV in commercials like Kinyara Sugar (Uganda), Whitedent toothpaste (Tanzania), PSI AIDS awareness messages (East Africa) and Blue Band margarine and Coca Cola Family (All Africa). With a strong screen presence, Ambani starred in audience-pulling programmes like Tausi, Theatre Special, Fate Makers, and Tushauriane on the national Kenya Broadcasting Corporation Television. Representatives of the Kenya government, UNDP, UN, and diplomatic corps are amon he invited guests to the launch of Naliaka is going. Also carrying kenya's flag will be recording artistes Yunasi and Poxi Presha who are scheduled to perform on July 3, and July 11 and 12, respectively.

Uganda's Percussion Discussion Afrika, Tanzania's Juma Nature and Professor Jay, Madagascar's Haja Madagasikari and Congo's Yela Wa are among the array of artistes who will entertain at ZIFF. The music programme, says Music and performing Arts Coordinator Fellician mabunda, was "established to complement the film programe and enrich the senses of the audience."

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