Famous abroad: Why Kenyan films premiere outside the country

Kenya has always been a favourite shooting destination due to its vast and diverse land scape, a good supply of highly skilled crew and availability of equipment. Movies like ‘Out of Africa’ (1985), ‘Sense 8’ and the ‘First Grader’ were all shot in Kenya.

Though in the recent past film makers are continuously choosing other destinations, the potential in Kenya is undeniable.

Kenyan film makers have also been on the rise with films like ‘Nairobi Half Life’, ‘Kati Kati’, ‘18 Hours’, ‘Leo’, and ‘Neophobia’ gaining many accolades abroad. The big question though is why these movies premiere outside the country, and why they are bigger out there than they are here.

Mugambi Nthiga is a celebrated actor, writer and director. As an actor he has landed principal roles in M-Net’s pan-African TV drama ‘Changes’, the celebrated Kenyan films ‘Nairobi Half Life’ and ‘Stories of Our Lives’.

In 2014, he directed ‘Stories from the Mall’, a stage tribute to the 2013 Westgate terrorist attack, and in 2015 co-wrote ‘Kati Kati’, a feature film co-written and directed by Mbithi Masya. Kati Kati premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2016 where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. It has also won the best film at Sweden’s CinemAfrica Festival, a Special Mention at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the AMVCA Award for Best East African film.

“In Kenya we use the independent production business module where we create movies more for art than business,” he admits. “The plan is to make a movie, premiere it at a festival where hopefully you can get scouted by a big industry player who can then fund your next project.”

For Mugambi, one of his biggest milestones so far is that Ava Marie Du Vernay twitted about them (Kati Kati). The American film director, producer, screenwriter, film marketer and film distributor even followed their director on Twitter. According to him, Kenyan movie making remains a labour of love with little money if any to be made. This, he mostly attributes to the “movie guy” who in his calculations is killing the movie industry.

“We were once at a DVD premiere of ‘Nairobi Half Life’ where we were selling DVD’s and signing autographs. As we were leaving in the evening a movie guy came up to us and was selling us pirated copies of our own movie in the car park. One of us actually took it and broke it and the funny thing is, the guy was actually offended that we destroyed his property.”

OPTIMISTIC

Though he is optimistic, Mugambi admits that until we place a cultural and artistic value to movies we will not get anywhere.

“Movies make something that’s more than money, as the Swahili saying puts it, a people without a culture are slaves,” he says.

Challenges notwithstanding, the sector continues to soldier on as stakeholders make valiant efforts to streamline it. One such effort was the International Film Convention 2017 held in Nairobi, chaired by Mwaniki Mageria and spearheaded by Dr Ezekiel Mutua, the CEO of the Kenya Film Classification Board. The convention produced 13 resolutions with specific timelines which if followed to the letter would transform the Kenyan film industry. Industry players are hopeful but continue to keep an eye on proceedings to see if these resolutions will be realised.

Nduta Sialo, the national secretary of the Kenyan Actors Guild, remains hopeful that things will pick up: “When we were young cinema was a big part of our culture. Kenya Cinema and Nairobi Cinema were the ultimate date spots and the drive in was the place families would go for a great time out. Although the numbers have dropped we continue to look for creative ways to get people to come out and enjoy a good movie.”

The opportunity according to her lies in contextualising our Kenyan situation. In her estimation there are close to 100,000 little movie dens all over the country that show movies to low income earners. By tapping into that market Kenyan movie makers stand to make some good cash.

“We started an event called “Two Hours of Sunset” where people come in, have some nyama choma, drinks and some great music. At about 6pm they enjoy two hours of a great Kenyan movie, then we do an after party till midnight. So far the response is awesome and we are expanding,” she explains.

Chris Kamau, the chairman of Kenya Actors Guild, says Kenyans should be quick to adapt their own stories into movies as well as come out in numbers to support them.

“‘My life in Crime’ is a Kenyan classic, but we were slow to pick it up so now Tanzanians have done the movie. We must be proud of who we are as Kenyans and begin to tell our own stories. It’s unfortunate that Kenyans will come out to the premiere of an international block buster but won’t come out to support their own,” he says.

Matrid Nyaga is an Oscar Award winner for her narrative film and documentary ‘Watu Wote’. She is also the President of Dada Trust, the organisers of Udada International Women’s Film Festival. She argues that a film is often a collaborative effort between different people from different countries. She further says that films are also cross cultural products that cross boundaries, languages and time zones.

“Movies are produced local but for global consumption, so you have to premiere them where they will be seen by the most people. Some festivals are pre-qualifiers for the Oscars and if I had done it on my own then I would have never gotten that Oscar. Sometimes the projects are also foreign funded and it’s a logistical nightmare to fly in 40 people for a premiere when you can just have it where they are,” she says.

Ultimately, films are global creative works of art that transcend geographical, political, cultural and even linguistic barriers. And though Kenyan films are more famous abroad than they are at home, we can take solace in the fact that they are out there, representing us well.