By Ogova Ondego
Published November 24, 2013
HAUNTED SOULS, a film by Godwin Otwoma that competed against 23 other films for the Best Short Film Award at the Nigeria-based 3rd Africa International Film Festival, is slated for screening and discussion during the 71st monthly Lola Kenya Screen film screening, discussion and networking forum (LKSff) at Goethe-Institut, Nairobi, on November 25, 2013.
Otwoma, who says he made his acting debut in the sketch comedy show—INTRUUKALASS on Nation TV in 2002 alongside Churchill, Kajairo and Public Noise Makers—was among practitioners from 20 African countries who presented their work at AFRIFF in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, November 10-17, 2013. He says his film was made in the framework of the Uganda-based Maisha Film Lab that mentors in filmmaking.
The 30-minute HAUNTED SOULS drama that was made in May 2013 “is the story of a former abductee of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in post-conflict northern Uganda fleeing from her former captor, an LRA commander who has sneaked back to Uganda to take his former concubine with him to Central Africa where the group fled to following the issuance of warrants of arrest by the International Criminal Court of LRA’s top commanders,” Otwoma says.
Otwoma is currently appearing on Nairobi’s Citizen Tv’s court room comedy, MASHTAKA, as Inspector arap Songok. The programme shows on Sundays at 4:30PM.
“I played the supporting role in the Ugandan feature comedy, SPYING ON SUSANA in 2013. The film is directed by Robert Nkambo,” Otwoma, whose interest in filmmaking was nurtured in Kampala, says. “I was also the Supervising Producer for the film that is scheduled for showing in Ugandan Cinemas in December 2013.”
This is the second film by Otwoma that is being showcased at LKSff following the October 2011 screening of his other work, MUSIC PROPHECIES BY AN URBAN POET.
Screening alongside HAUNTED SOULS at the 71st LKSff shall be SPILLED, a crime thriller by Ian Kithinji whose other film, CONTROL, was screened and discussed at this Nairobi’s most consistent Film Forum that has been running every month since December 2005 in June 2011. Kithinji, who now works with Cinematic Solutions production company, was still a student at Daystar University when his film was shown at the 47th LKSff and also during the 6th Lola Kenya Screen festival.
LKSff is a motion pictures screening, discussion and networking platform aimed at critiquing, encouraging and exploring ways of integrating film production in eastern Africa with other socio-cultural and economic sectors in order to come up with a vibrant film industry.
LKSff brings together audiovisual media players – filmmakers, actors, journalists, critics, writers, students, scholars, researchers, funders, festival organizers, and policy-makers within the governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations and other players with a stake in the motion pictures sector – in Nairobi.
During LKSff a selected film is screened followed by an open discussion based on the production as pertains to filmmaking in the region.
The films exhibited and discussions arising from them are reviewed and published by ArtMatters.Info with a view to promoting the films; the stories are picked by film festivals, media schools and international funding agencies around the world; the articles are also picked by journalists and other mass media for reproduction.
LKSff meets every last Monday of the month at Goethe-Institut, Nairobi, Kenya, and is often one of the first places where new films can be seen and young talent spotted.
LKSff, the initiative of ComMattersKenya in collaboration with Goethe-Institut, was founded under the ArtMatters.Info cultural journalism project and mentorship programme for youth, media students and young journalists.
LKSff is part of the Lola Kenya Screen (LKS) audiovisual media festival, skills-development programme and marketing platform for children and youth in eastern Africa.
