By Lola Kenya Screen Publicity
Published March 6, 2011

The Nairobi-based Lola Kenya Screen audiovisual media festival, skills-development programme and marketing platform for children and youth in eastern Africa is calling for film entry from children in Africa. The films are for the 5th annual Kids for Kids Africa Festival Competition that has since 2007 been organised and presented in the framework of Africa’s premier audiovisual media initiative specifically and exclusively designed for children and youth.

“The films we are looking for must be made by children and youth in 2010 and 2011 only; any film made by adults masquerading as children or youth are unacceptable,” Lola Kenya Screen Director Ogova Ondego says. “We define a child as any one aged 18 years and under. And such people need not be citizens of Africa but can be resident in the mother continent at the time the film was made.”

Ondego clarifies that films made by children under the guidance of adults are eligible for the Kids For Kids Africa but that the contribution of adults should be confined to training or facilitating the process but should not be extended to areas such as scripting, shooting, story-boarding or animating that disqualify the production.

“Eligible films are those made by children resident in any part of Africa. All kinds of moving images–animation, experimental, documentary, fiction–will be considered,” Ondego says.

Like all entries to Lola Kenya Screen, any film in a language other than English must be sub-titled in English.

“All entries will be received, processed, assessed and awarded by a film selection committee and jury comprising children. Winning entries will represent Africa at the international Kids for Kids Festival,” Ondego adds.

The deadline for receiving entries at the Lola Kenya Screen directorate is April 15,2011.

Films for the 4th Kids For Kids Africa are to be submitted to:
Lola Kenya Screen, PCEA Enchoro Emuny Church, Ngong Road, Ngong Hills,
P O Box 20775-00100 GPO, Nairobi, Kenya (EA).

The Kids For Kids Festival (KFKF) is an international community of young filmmakers and media educators; it constitutes a unique, international movement for the promotion and advertisement of audiovisual messages created by children for children.

The International Centre of Film for Children and Youth (CIFEJ) has undertaken the quality control of the Kids For Kids Festival, and up to 2009, has been the main partner of the Global Network of KFKF.

A series of affiliated KFKF have now been operating on regional levels, like the KFKF Balkans, KFKF Africa, KFKF Nordic & Baltic Sea, or on a national level like the KFKF-UK and KFKF Iran.

KFKA was first held in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 5th World Summit on Media for Children in 2007. However since August 2007, KFKA has been organised and presented in the framework of the Kenya-based Lola Kenya Screen.

“We have organised and presented KFKA since 2007 because we share the core values with KFKF and CIFEJ: promoting cinema art by children for children,” Ondego says.

More about Lola Kenya Screen
In 2010, Lola Kenya Screen received entries from 37 countries–Serbia, Nepal, USA, Spain, Namibia, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Italy, India, Iran, Uganda, UK, France, Finland, Romania, Moldova, Singapore, Kenya, The Netherlands, Croatia, Tunisia, Japan, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Slovenia, Kosovo, Ethiopia, Norway, Brazil, Tanzania, Uganda, Turkey, Ukraine, Latvia, Argentina—in 33 laguages—Nepali, Tamang, Spanish, English, German, Polish, Danish, Italian, Tamil, Farsi, Karamojong, French, Hokkein, Dutch, Arab, Kannada, Chichewa, Setswana, Slovene, Kiswahili, Albanian, Amharic, Sheng, Somali, Norwegian, Singala, Kinyarwanda, Portuguese, Malayalam, Gambay, Finnish, Luganda, Turkish, No dialogue—from five continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, North America.

The highest number of entries came from Spain followed by Kenya and Nigeria. For the first time, films came from Kosovo, Tunisia, Malawi, Moldova and Singapore.

“Animation carried the most entries from almost every country and continent and a good number of experimental films was also registered,” Ondego says. “Our hearts were warmed by the fact that since we started in 2005, 2010 witnessed an upsurge in the number of films made by children and youth, i.e. those under the age of 18 years.”

The Lola Kenya Screen directorate made a provision for pre-schoolers, i.e. 3 – 6-year-olds in the film programme in 2010.

“We have always catered for children aged 6 and above since 2006 when we held our maiden festival.However the five-year experience has taught us that a large number of our children was missing out on quality content and that is why we must salvage the situation before it gets out of hand.” Ondego says.

In 2010, Lola Kenya Screen showcased films in 10 sections: The Golden Mboni Award Competition for the Best Children’s Film, The 14-Plus Award Competition for the Best Youth Film, Films by Students, Films by Children, Films for Youth, Eastern Africa Prism, Television Series, World Panorama, Special Focus, and 4th Kids For Kids Africa.

There was a special focus on experimental films and animation. Also introduced in 2010 was a daily media literacy seminar over the entire six days of the festival for what Ondego described as “sensitising the public, and especially children, on the opportunities and risks inherent in the consumption of modern mass media content.”