The Good and the Evil of Present Day Tanzania; What is missing in locally produced commercial films?

It’s a predicament to watch Hollywood or Bollywood films and find sympathy, meaning and logic of the universal appealing thoughts that are being expressed in those films on what good or evils are, especially those of human doings and find none of the above in our locally produced commercial films in Tanzania.

When I watched My name is Khan (and I am not a terrorist) which it appears to be a statement on the socio-political hangovers of the September eleven (9/11) which affected the social-communal rapport between the Americans and the Arabs then I was stirred or rather forced to think about our films and the socio-economic and political goods and evils of the present day Tanzania and if at all any of them are being portrayed in this locally produced commercial films.

Built upon the foundation of morals, film is a statement or an argument on the social, economic, political and cultural phenomena and some scholars such as Sarah Maldoror have argued that to make a film is to take a position.

Having established that films are based on the good and the evil, we could ask ourselves what Bongo Movies are based on. Bongo movies are not completely out of touch with what transpires on the day to day lives of the Tanzania, at least at certain socio-cultural classes, but we can do better than that by becoming more realistic and true to our present day situations and problems.

One reason that could render these movies as unnatural or out of touch of their film world as they are is that they are produced or rather designed for profit making. This is what happened when art becomes a commodity. Movies are therefore produced according to what the audience’s preferences or what they would buy.

But even though they are produced to be sold as business or economic activity, I am certain that we are not on the right track if we compare our industry with Hollywood or Bollywood or even Nigerian films which in my view they have ideology and position to take. Since films are made to seen, that’s the first goal and then the business component comes after the audience have chose what film to watch, then we should put a lot of effort in ascertaining what they would chose to watch and not give them just what it is that they want.

When you analyze what the local writers, producers, directors etc have selected, among other things, for the film audiences to watch, that’s when you realize that a lot is missing. A lot is missing if you compare it with the current debates and discussion over radio, TV and newspapers as agenda that materialize from our day to day politics of interest, social welfare and education, the imbalance of economic status, cultural imperialism and activism tendencies.

The present day Tanzania is succumbed with a lot that people are disinterested with and one is able to find this heavily covered in news bulletins for both radio, TV and Newspapers. The conflicts and emotions that are portrayed in such TV and Radio news stories is without a flaw what the content of the films should be. I am not trying to limit the creativity and imaginations of our writers/producers but I am convinced that the sources of their inspirations isn’t what is surrounding and shaping the lives of ordinarily Tanzanians.

 I once had a discussion with renowned Professor of art and culture in Tanzania, Prof. Elias Jengo and in that exchange of view I garner that the history of political, social, economical and cultural developments in Tanzania is rich in terms of themes to say that we might exhaust it in the next five decades or a century.  History is so beautiful, it makes me wanna cry, said Whoopi Goldberg, playing Ms. Masambuka in Sarafina. One certain source of so much exciting and revitalizing stories of African caliber is history. So much has not yet portrayed about our country (pre-colonial, colonial and post colonial). Our history is still rich to inform themes of the stories that the world shall enjoy. How about a film on the late Mwl. Nyerere, Karume, Mkwava wa Uhehe (Mkwawa)? On this note we could borrow a leaf from South African films on Madiba (Nelson Mandela) such as Invictus and Goodbye Bafana.

Allow me to cite at least one film that you might have not watched it as they were not produced for distribution in the market but a film with significance to the socio-economic and cultural realities of the times of its making. Arusi ya mariamu (1985) which was co- produced by Tanzania film company/ Prof. Martin Mhando and Ron Muvihil starring Prof. Amandina Lihamba, is the story that put on view the victory of traditional over modern medicine. 1980s was the time that we had two conflicting sides on healing and medicine, that of traditional and modernity. This time saw Africans/Tanzanians in dilemma of whether they should opt for new medicines and doctors introduced from scientific laboratories or stick to their herbs and traditional medicines and healers. To portray such moments in a film had a number of advantages. Firstly, the film is a reliable documentary of what transpired in 1980s. Secondly we can assume (since no research was conducted at that time) that the film had an impact on the perceptions and attitudes of the Tanzanians, who had a chance to watch the film, on their patronage of modern medicine.

Apparently you may find that such ideas are on papers and are written by writers/film producers that you hardly know them. I appeal to financial institutions to put trust and support the emerging, independent, young and enterprising film producers who are eager to make films as interventions on matters that shapes our thinking, language and actions upon which one can be so sure that the communities through films they will shift their point of view and attitudes towards life for the betterment of self and the community at large.

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Current Trends in Filmmaking in Tanzania: Bloom or Gloom

Not only Tanzanians, but Africans in general never had their hands involved in the process of filmmaking on either the golden age of Hollywood, or the silent period of the 1920s. Up until 1950s the world had not yet witnessed a single film produced by an African Director. Even some of the latter films made by Africans were not filmed in Africa. History entails that it’s in the 1960’s and 1970’s that African Directors broke whatever the curse or myth was and started making their own films. Such a failed experience by the Africans was conditioned by the colonialists who feared that the Africans shall tell the rest of the world of the oppression and sufferings they were subjected to by the colonialists.

In the process of making films for and about Africans, without the Africans being involved in any way, they managed to make such films as Tarzan which portrays Africa as a jungle. This was a disappointment and the world went on to enjoy Tarzan and understand what Africa is all about throughout it then. The Senegalese and father of African Cinema, the late Ousmane Sembene, wrote and directed the first African motion picture La Noire De (Black Girl). His success must have triggered what happened after that in most of African countries and the kind of trends in filmmaking that we have experienced. In Tanzania, as the industry kept on growing to become what it is today as we all can witness, the question is, when we look at the recent trend; does it indicate a bloom or gloom?

There is a historical significance of filmmaking in Tanzania that goes all the way back to 1980’s where such films as Yomba Yomba, Harusi ya Mariam, Maangamizi , Fimbo ya Mnyonge to mention but a few, were made. Such trend is witnessed also in recent times with the making of such films as Rama, Mama Tumaini, Fimbo ya Baba and the more recent one Chumo. A close scrutiny at the few mentioned films above, you will be able to identify some tendencies of presence of formal values, artistic preferences and complexity, processed messages and appropriate manner of productions. 

The monopoly of state run filmmaking companies ended with 1990’s free economy and privatizations in Tanzania. What happened after that are the establishment of independent filmmaking companies, emergence of independent filmmakers and some of the institutions, NGOs, CBOs, etc have embarked in making films with clear objectives attached to their missions and at their own capacity or in collaboration. They both have influenced the development of our film industry in particular ways. It’s hard to ignore also the influence of the establishment of privately owned television stations in the 90s and Nigerian films.

A close examination of the recent film making tendency in Tanzania are revealing the following trends in filmmaking; the commercial filmmaking, artistic filmmaking, the educational/pedagogic filmmaking and lastly the combination of two or more of the types above. Both trends have contributed immensely to the changes that have been occurring in the filmmaking industry in Tanzania. The discussion on changes starts with the fact that we are now making films with our own hands and minds. I consider that to be a major step. However I must say we have a long way to go. The challenge we are facing now lies in striking the balance or narrowing the gap between the commercial films, artistic films and the educational/pedagogic films as we consider the formal values, artistic preferences, processed messages, entertainment business and the appropriate manner of productions.

Some of us we have been enjoying the exhibition of locally produced, complex plotted artistic films during film festivals such as Zanzibar International Film Festivals (ZIFF) and European Film festivals to mention a few. Some of us have been enjoying the locally produced commercial films with slight or fully critics and there are those who have appreciated the significance and artistic oeuvres attached to pedagogic films in many ways. These films have portrayed their own trends and there is such a great differences between them. The difference that one may think should have contributed to the wellness of our industry is in fact the leather weapon that destroys it (in my opinion).

It has come into sight also that so many critics have been posed to these commercial films in Tanzania that makes me wonder if that is helping at all. My observation is that the situation is worsening as the gap between the trends I discussed above is widening, only until I came across Chumo.

Watching the exhibition of Chumo at Biafra grounds, to me it appeared to be an African Cinema with a mix of Combative and Unqualified Assimilation tendencies. Then I said wow! The history of filmmaking in Tanzania is getting richer. What we are witnessing now is a mix of the tendencies and practices that are categorized (by African cinema scholars) as phases. These scholars have maintained that African cinema is going through three major phases in its development. These are unqualified assimilation, return to source and combative phase.

Chumo is of its own caliber, if one takes a close up at it, Jordan Riber and the crew did a well done job. The processed message at the end, the popular stars and the business component that is attached to it is what I want to scrutinize. I bought Neria from the street vendors only to realize that it is pirated. This explains that it was not available for distribution. But I asked a friend to buy Chumo for me from the same street vendors and I enjoyed the quality of the film. The fact that Chumo was made with an intention also of distribution, has added another film in the market that I believe it might trigger and expose the local filmmakers to what film art and business is supposed to be practiced. However, the 5Ws + H of the film needs to be put clear, otherwise we are going into another antecedent of trials from within, whereby we have come from the trials to making films that are copy cats of Nollywood, Bollywood and Hollywood. But I believe it’s worthy it.

Probably nothing is subsequently innovative about films now. The film language is universal and so it should be its practice. But let me take you back to history again. 1960’s the world saw the emergence of films made by African filmmakers that reflected the post independence sociopolitical themes such as how to build a nation and the hangovers of the colonial oppression. Such themes informed also the content of most of the post independent literary plays and novels by African authors such as Lwanda Magere, A man of the people, I will Marry When I want, Mashetani, to mention but a few. From 1970’s until today there have been some revolutionary patterns in terms of the themes of the films. The focus of the films today should be relevant to the moments of our lives from socialism, capitalism and the new imperialism that we are in. On the acme of it all, we need style and ideology. I hardly find these in any of the trends.

The Status of filmmaking education in Tanzania

The word status in the title heading this article is misleading, some would say. Some would ask, are you speaking about how much filmmaking is covered in our education curriculum at least from O - level, A - level to Higher learning institutions? Or how many schools/colleges, whether public or privately owned, are training people in filmmaking? Or how many Instructors, Lectures with PhDs or Professors are specializing in teaching this subject? Or how many graduates so far have come out of the school with such education? It’s too many questions to be asked and addressed in just one article.  More acceptably I will just survey, discern and provide an indication on both of the enquiries I have mentioned above to the best of my experience as an instructor, scholar, analyst and future practitioner in Video-Filmmaking. My intention is to analyze the status of film education in building the professional capacity of Filmmakers at the local level.  And so I decided to use the word status. However I intend not to rank the Tanzania Video-filmmaking education, but I will look at its position and conditions towards the growing Tanzania Video-filmmaking industry.  

When Major L. A. Notcutt and Geoffrey Latham, established the Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment (BEKE) in Tanganyika in 1935 and experimented the use of cinema with the minds of our frontiers to see if they can conjure and understand the language of film, I bet they never had a clue that we would be interested and engage ourselves today in making our own films as well.  In 1948 the colonial film unit started producing films at local settings which were meant for education and propagandas of the colonialists. When we took matters into our own hands after gaining independence, still the position and significance of films in propagating development ideas was ascertain. The establishment of the Tanzania film company in 1968 and the 1974 Audio Visual Institute that replaced the film unit was a leap towards the development of the local filmmaking capacity. However the question of education in filmmaking might have been given less attention since then.

It’s in the milieu of our country that when we think of developing education programs, we embark first on infrastructural development. I do the same and discuss first if we have film schools/colleges specifically or with tailored courses in video production and film production. Lucky enough we do have them. We have managed to establish, again in response to the growing needs of such education, video – filmmaking Institute/colleges/ departments over the years. Such departments as the department of Fine and Performing Arts (FPA) at University of Dar es Salaam, the unit of Art, Media and Design at University of Dodoma offers courses in film production as well for Bachelor and Masters Degree students. Institutes such as Institute of Arts and Media Communication (IAMCO) at Ilala Sheriff Shamba, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) and Kilimanjaro Film Institute (KFI) in Arusha, these offers tailored courses in Video/Film production for certificate and Diploma students. A quick survey on the graduation statistics entails that a good number of aspirants have graduated with very good grades. Do the math.

However, who qualifies into degree, diploma or certificate programs in such colleges, institute or departments is one seminal factor. I am an alumna of FPA department, and I had a privilege to teach at IAMCO for the past two consecutive years. My experience as a student and with the students is troubled with the issue of foreign language as a medium of instructions in teaching and thereafter during the private-self reading in books and via the internet. Despite the fact this is mentioned as a setback in every sector, education in media is suffering a hundredfold. Most of the texts for instance on video production and film making are written in English and other foreign languages. I have hardly found a book in Swahili on this subject. In such a situation I have always wondered how we can help the enthusiastic – eager to learn students in different colleges/institute who are seeking this knowledge but who find difficulties in the language of video/film production and technology which is in most cases English. However I should insist that everything about this subject is written in books and still new editions are released everyday in response to the changing technology and the newly generated knowledge of film production.

The filmmaking education as an art, technology or practice is not covered, at least at the moment in secondary school’s curriculum. One finds it at the college or university level. Probably, it’s not the perfect timing for someone to start from scratch and reach a point that he/she understands what filmmaking art and technology is all about. Few of us whom to a certain extent have indulged in such studies at degree level we have enjoyed the benefit of the theoretical part of it, and we can give criticisms, analysis and evaluation very well. Are we ending up as such? It’s obviously no, as I have been observing my colleagues such as Amanzi Ali (Rudi Africa, White chair), Gervas Kasiga (Fake pastors) who have made their mark already by producing or co- producing features that enjoyed distribution in the market. But we could have done better with the government support to advance and promote the status of filmmaking education in Tanzania by providing the necessary learning facilities, technological gadgets and teaching aids to such schools and colleges. Other than that, sponsor instructors, lectures to go and further their studies and skills for the brighter future of the film industry which is growing in demand of human resources to handle its production, distribution/marketing and exhibition activities.

We do have frontiers/teachers and experienced people in academia who teach this practice. Mr. Richard Ndunguru at FPA/UDSM has played an inspiring role in mentoring and nurturing the younger generation (including me) who find interest in filmmaking. Lately, we have had Dr. Mona Mwakalinga graduating for a PhD in the same subject. Prof Martin Mhando (Yomba Yomba 1985, Maangamizi 1996, Ron Mulvihill), Prof Amandina Lihamba, Dr Frowin Nyoni have availed in major early 90s feature filmmaking, and today’s trainings, research and consultancy. Still there is a need to encourage more people to get into this field. Use the little resources we already have and face up to the challenges that the academia in this field is subjected to in this era. Need I appreciate also the role of the local and international organizations such Goethe Institute in Tanzania, Alliance Francaire in Tanzania, Zanzibar International Film festival, Maisha Lab in Uganda who have been organizing seminars and workshops intended to reallocate knowledge of filmmaking to the local practitioners in Tanzania. Such efforts have created a platform that helped in exposing the local filmmaking aspirants to the art, practice and technology of filmmaking.

I bet and as it appears, that a theorist can stand and happen to be good at theory only and so is a practical person who does more than theorizing. The merging of the two is a deadly weapon. Few with gifted talents get the best and benefit of it all such as Professor Elias Jengo who is the renowned professor in Tanzanian Arts and Culture. Professor Jengo has managed to paint, draw and sculpt state of arts painting, drawings and sculptures and at the same keep an excellent and undisputed standing at Lecturing. It’s the battle to find the niche between the two extremes that most of the intellectuals in this field should be engaged to. We may need as well to start training students how to merge the fine art motives and values that are demanded in academia, intellectual and professional world of film art with those commercial motives that are demanded by the Industrial capitalist world which enjoys the neo-liberal economy where art is now a commodity and it needs to appeal to a majority of population in order to make profit.  More appropriately media entrepreneurship should be taught along this discipline as well so that we get high skilled – enterprising producers who are profit and fine art makers.

Chemi Chemponda, a Tanzania’s seasoned women journalist, legal assistant, news writer and an actress based in Massachussets, USA, in an interview with Issa Michuzi, December 2010, when asked what should be done to make Tanzania’s film industry grow to the likes of Nollywood (Nigeria) and other successful African countries? She maintained that “let me say it’s become much cheaper to make a film than 20 years ago because of the advent of digital media. I’d like to see people get the proper training in filmmaking. We need people willing to learn from the experts then go out on their own and make their own films”. Education is the greatest blessing bestowed on human kind. Despite the challenges we are facing, let’s seek it and come another season, another trend, and another realm will be that of the gurus who have sought of education and knowledge as a priority.

A Niche of Film Audience in Tanzania

During one of the latest film stakeholder’s discussion on Tanzanian films held at BASATA (Jukwaa la Sanaa) that I attended, Prof. Amandina Lihamba, while giving her closing remarks, she retains that  from her experience in arts “Audiences in arts is created, and thereafter they themselves creates hopes and expectations in such arts”. This argument contented my conscience and I decided to dissect it and see how it can be implied in our context of film art and industry and further loom into its dynamism in terms of film production, distribution and exhibition and so is its prospects. If audience can be created, I have a feeling that it’s high time we start doing the same with our film audience. My concern, over the past articles that I wrote and research I have conducted is that audience are the cause of the dynamism that is taking place in Tanzania film. In the recent research dissertation that I submitted to the University of Dar es Salaam, The changing dynamics in Tanzania film Industry, A study of Dar es Salaam film Audience, the study reveals that the dynamism that is taking place in Tanzania film industry at both levels of operations, that of production, distribution and exhibition is caused also by the audience’s choice of film that they watch.  My further reaches in this article is that these groups of people that make the recently locally produced films their choice have been created.

It’s very comprehensive to analyze and speak about ways that Tanzania film audiences have been responding to films that are locally made or imported over the years of history of cinema and movies since the times of BEKE before I even speak of how they have been created or how they can be created. One of the question before that might be, have they been responding to the sense that these films maintains, is it all about the visual or aural astonishment, or the beauty of films? Whatever the case that might have informed their response, I propose that what has been important in this variety of films to them as audience is the phenomenal meaning, expectations and the hypotheses that they supply to these films. Therefore what they choose to watch is informed by their certainty of meaning and expectations.

 Further into that we may ask, is it the audience’s meaning and expectation that precedes the film or the film is the one that audience chooses to watch and thereafter creates the meaning and expectations and hence the repeated viewing of the same film or rather films that fall under the same genre. Hereafter is it the question of genre or significance of the film to the audience?  Consider the film audience who reads about the film’s plot or storyline from the back of the film cover or through any other access such as reviews on internet, this sort of audience has certain expectations that he/she is digging from the film. This is where my argument lies, that if it’s the authors of the films that create the phenomenology of film viewership and so they create the audiences for their films.

Films are made to be seen. Therefore audience plays an imperative role.  With our locally made films some of the stakeholder hosts that we have lost track of what our films are or should be.  My view is that we are lost if we criticize these films with no records or researched information of what Tanzania film audiences are. What could be their psychology and attitude towards different genres of films that occurs in the history of human development? The fact that film audiences are of complex groups and are in diversity that it takes a lot of consumers/audience research to detail them park another challenge if we are to understand such process of audience procreations towards their films viewership interest and attitudes.

The breeding of Tanzania film audience that I am proposing here starts with the film author’s understanding of the fact that human beings differ in million numbers of ways. The human basic needs and desires towards films vary correspondently. Some chose to watch thriller, some romantic comedy while other will sit for hours watching horrors. Other than that some would chose to watch a film basing on a number of appealing factors such as language, commercial motives, its complexity or simplicity. To conjure what the films is about takes brain muscles. To make a film that demands such muscles takes an author of the same quality. In turn, at the end of the circle it’s the audience who chooses among the pool of different levels of brain - demanding films. Whatsoever it’s the author who initiates the process and once the film is out his authority deplete and he can not tell where his influences ends.

This is the point that I get to realize that we can create a new group of film audience in Tanzania. This starts with identifying and being inspired by matters that informs their consent with different varieties of films found in Tanzania film market and exhibition. What’s important is that we create them to become audiences to our films and we don’t necessarily create what they want. As said above by Prof. Amandina that “Audiences in arts is created, and thereafter they themselves creates hopes and expectations in such arts”.  To create films for them is more or less that you are arguing for them or with them or you are making a statement about the situations and circumstances that surround their lives. This puts us on the verge of contempt again as it demands that we (authors) are well informed and we do understand our society well enough to analyze their situations and the internal and external drives to such. Shall we get that information to our finger tips? How? Let’s read. So much has been written already, it’s upon us to adopt and only to adopt them to screen plays. 

The film audience’s responses may reflect various influences and may act symptomatic of the society in which the film was made. I hope that fact provides us with an understanding as to why no matter what is so critically – what is not film in our locally made films they still enjoy distribution all over the film market in Tanzania and the nearby countries. The images and ways of life of post modern society are being reflected or portrayed in these films with very little or no commentary or statements to speak of the philosophy or socio – psychology of the same in the contemporary world.

Our films should have clear objectives which in some what reason can be to bring hope to the now riveted and history of struggle of the Africans against poverty, hunger, famine, war, ignorance to mention a few. I presume there are film audiences in Tanzania who would enjoy watching Xala, Yomba Yomba, Harusi ya Marium, Neria, Fimbo ya Baba, Mama Tumaini, Rama, to mention a few, its only that these films have limited distribution and are mostly exhibited during festivals where by very few attends them and need I mention also some would prefer to watch films in the confinements of their homes. Such being the case we can replicate from what these films are, probably in every aspect and make films of the same style or conventions and continue on such direction to find our own course, niche or place in the world’s film market. In each and every film I sighted above one is able to find a commercial motives being rendered apparently with the life – philosophy motives or fine art motives. This is the tendency in Hollywood, Bollywood, Nigerian films and so forth. I trust that such films as mentioned above would have enjoyed a wide market distribution if they were made to be distributed for profit or whatsoever. One thing that inspires such a conviction in me is that audiences are also wide and complex enough to find out what they would have chose to watch. They eat what you serve but they have a mandate over what class of service you are providing them. Hence we can speak of the possibility of creating another niche, with a different kind of service and possibly make another group of film audience to support it as they bring their expectations, phenomenal meaning, hypotheses and thereafter causing the dynamism to our growing film industry in Tanzania.

The Maisha Lab in Uganda put it as their motto that if we don’t tell our stories who will, the stories of the hunt will always favor the hunter until the story of the hunt is told by the lion, an African proverb infers. Rambo wins the Vietnam War for the American but we all know what happened during such war.

Brainwaves and Insights from the 13th ZIFF Winning Films Directors

At least every year over the past 13 years, Zanzibar has been hosting the famous Zanzibar International Film Festival. Over the years I have been attending such an important festival for both film audience from around the world and most importantly film directors from dhow countries and globe at large. Well I couldn’t help it doing so this time around as well. Reading the ZIFF program, my first glance was on the message from this festival director, Prof. Martin Mhando. Some of it reads “At ZIFF we act as a vehicle for art and the union of image and sound in film is one of the most powerful art forms we have today. We provide a space to show the amazing, beautiful and stimulating works from Africa and beyond so they can be honored and be given the due time and reflection they deserve”.  That’s exactly what the 13^th ZIFF screened films were, they were amazing and beautiful to watch and stimulated both the souls and minds of the film audience who were gathered to watch them. During ZIFF such films do walk away with awards and prizes and people who collected them are the directors of the films. Their happiness and appreciations didn’t end up when they were receiving their symbols of winning but the day after they were invited for a press conference and this is where I collected from them what I call brainwaves and insights about filmmaking but most noticeably why and how should we be making films.

The following is the presentation, with a little bit of commentary added, of the ZIFF after awards night press conference attended by some of the winning films directors. Starting with Ndoto za Elibidi (75min) by Nick Reding and Kamau Wa Ndugu that walked away with four awards from different awards categories. The film was devised originally as a stage play with actors from the Nairobi slums. This Swahili story pivots around the theme of acceptance and love as its colorful protagonists – parents, where by George has a dream of seeing his four daughters getting good jobs and prospering but the dream is becoming illusory as both members of the family and their lovers come to terms with HIV and ghetto life.

The directors were able to verify what the motives for their making of such a brilliant film were. According to Kamau Wa Ndugu, they were predictive that the film will bring hope to people living in slums (Madhare, Nairobi Kenya) as well as motivate them. Ndoto za Elibidi was running for five years in the slums (Under SAFE project) therefore it’s likely that they had about fiove years of pre – production.  One peculiar and innovatively far-fetched aspect about Ndoto za Elibidi is that audiences in the slums are introduced as third characters of the film and are therefore seen reacting to the play. However what is far more important one should is the moral statement of the film and the moral duty that the two directors were able to attend to.

A word of inspiration for younger and growing filmmakers that Nick Reding was able to give was that it’s not easy to make films, just persevere and keep going, we have seen really interesting and good young filmmakers here and I think there are a lot of talents in East Africa. Mean while Kamau Wa Ndugu had this words …patient pays, we have been very patient with this film, we have been wanting to shoot for the last five years but we didn’t have any money and we decided to just wait and finally we have a film.

Motherland (118 min) by Owen Alik Shahadah,walked away with an award for a best documentary film is a bold, epic documentary that fuses history, culture and politics to tell a new dynamic story of a continent. This fascinating narrative unfolds with interviews from Meles Zenawi, Jacob Zuma, Ali Mazuri and Harry Belafonte.  According to Owen Alik (Producer/Director) “Motherland is a concise overview of thirty thousand years of African history, starting with our first civilization in the Nile Valley, Ancient Egypt and charting the course of African history which is slavery, colonization and so forth to the contemporary moment dealing with the issues that continent face, success stories in the African continent.  Well motherland is actually about “the motherland” which is Africa to most of the blacks living in the different parts of the world, said Owen Alik. The film is a very intellectual vigorous film telling a story that demands a lot of research and objectivity.  However Owen Alik succeeded to a greater percentage to draw the attention and feelings of the diversified ZIFF audience who had an opportunity to watch the film. Owen Alik agrees that it was easy for him since he is also a scholar in aspects of African history particularly the Arab slave trade, African holocaust and West Africa. “That’s my style, doing academic type of themes” Owen Alik maintained. However the film isn’t dry as one may think due to the fact that it treats the academic theme. The cinematographic aspect of the film creates a visual simulation that makes it appealing to the mind and the eye at the same level of impact.

Despite the bureaucracy over the archived – past information about different stories that we always arrest to be a set back towards the making of profound films with such stories as what “motherland” was able to comprehend, Owen Alik maintains that it was his previous works and the validity of his idea of the film that paved his way through the bureaucracy over the retrival of such archived materials in different archives around Africa. There was a point that people he met along the way were directing him where to go and what should be picked for this documentary film. Lastly Owen maintains that the best person to succeed is the one who prepares. Preparation constitute the bigger part of a production than the filming itself which becomes easy if you have prepared. Owen went on supposing that in the process of making Motherland he had to do a solid research “we sepnd a lot of time preparing for example for the academic part of the film, tones of research papers were visited, history of the Swahili coast, the Zanji in Iraq…it’s a glamour and it’s a lot of work.

My City on Fire (5 min) which was awarded a best short documentary film is a short documentary about the 10^th December 2009 – riots in Kampala. People were terrified and rush to their families but not Dennis Onen (Director of the film) who felt the urge to make a video about the riots and he is courageous enough to go out on the streets only to find his city on fire. “Whatever endeavors we are in, though some people may not see it, the rest of the world may see something potential on it that is what makes me strong and gave me the courage and I feel encouraged telling more of the story of African continent” said Dennis Onen.  My city on fire is an instinctive film as the director reacted to the situation in Uganda at the time when the Buganda Kingdom and the central government had a conflict that had reached a maximum point and resulted into a war. “I picked my small hand cam and I was like, I need this story, I need to record it, may be one day I will need it but when I went down the road to this (record) I discovered that it was not just a story I wanted to keep but this was a story to tell the rest of the world”. Dennis went on supposing that the main thing I considered was what story I wanted to tell the world; it’s not only the recording (that was coincidental) I made but the story is what inspired me to go on with the making of this film.

My city on fire is Dennis’s personal statement, having experienced seeing his city burning at some point in his life. Dennis agrees that there are facts in our “motherland” that needs to be exposed. Finally Dennis expounds that he is in line with documentary films and he might continue making them and hence he wants to be nicknamed Dennis “The documentarian”, best of luck brother as such is an endeavor.

Pumzi (21 mins) is a science – fiction made in response to the problems we have with water especially the water crisis in Kenya and I reaction to the bottled water. According to the director, Wanuri Kahiu, Pumzi is holding in check the idea behind bottled water as one of the reason that we privatize all our resources. The director believes that it takes more water to make the bottle than to put water in the bottle. Pumzi is also a response to the ill-care that we give to the environment. The film dictated what genre it was going to be, I just followed the story from the beginning to the end” said the Wanuri Kahiu. Thus she didn’t have the idea of what genre this film was going to be as she was initially writing it.

The film is approximately 35 thousands US dollar budget which in reality is hard to seize for a non – profit project but she managed and she didn’t hesitate to expand on the grounds of such expensive grant saying “the first short film that she already made created a portfolio for granters to be convinced that she is an established filmmaker that can stand for the making of a film from the beginning to the end. However she maintains that she is not a proponent of just making films with grants money “I guess that’s not helping the industry in performing and growing, if you are not necessarily accountable on how that money goes into the industry in the end. She went on supposing that it will be great if we could get more of the commercial world, private sections investments to be able to fund films and get a little more government support. She lastly maintains that with every filmmaker, you are only as good as your last film.

Therefore, if I garner from such brainwaves and insights of the 13^th ZIFF film directors, I would say the reason why we should be making films is that film supposes a personal, moral and intellectual statement on and about the different life situations and circumstances that we live by on daily and from different wakes of life. It at all, we (filmmakers), on my opinion, we could think of films as text with statements to make, we might put this discipline high on top (than it has already been) of other disciplines that culminates on the same fact that “as we live, we come across the situations and circumstances that demands wisdom to go over them, we therefore need a statement of some meaningful actions of redemption”. Can we provide such statement via this medium, film?