Filmmaker contemplates a world without water and air

Wanuri is proud that Focus Features also worked on the global hit, District 9, and hopes that the two films will go a long way in ensuring that more sci-fi flicks can come from the continent.

She hopes to get the film to be showed at the Cannes Film Festival and eventually at the Oscars for a shot at the Best Short Film.

“I have a lot of hope for this film and I have a feeling it will do very well because I gave it my all,” she said.

Her last film, From a Whisper, a reconstruction of some of the events that followed the 1998 August 7 bombing in Nairobi, won five awards at the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in Nigeria in April.

The film bagged awards in the Best Editing, Best Screenplay, Best Sound Track and Best Film categories. It also won her the Best Director title.

“I am still surprised I won big at the awards because the film was up against some major films on the continent. I didn’t make it for the awards and, when the call came in at 3 a.m. that I had won, I cried a lot and was happy that I never made it to the awards because I would have broken down,” she said.

Wanuri, who graduated with a master’s degree from the University of Warwick, began hankering to make films after she visited former minister Raphael Tuju’s Ace Communications offices when she was 16 years old.

“I realised that there is life on TV and I fell in love with it immediately. From then on, I have not thought of doing anything else,” she said.

Professional gig

Her first professional gig was working on a behind-the-scenes production for a Hollywood movie, Catch a Fire, shot in South Africa based on the country’s struggle for independence, which featured renowned actor Derek Luke.

Her next job was on a short film, Rastar, based on the life of Kenyan rapper Nazizi, which was aired on M-Net.

She has also worked with M-Net on a documentary on Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai.

She is now working on her next project, a feature-length film on the Mau Mau freedom fighters.

“I have talked to people who actually fought in the war for independence and I have over 25 hours of interviews with the generals and fighters. It is time we told the story of the Kenyan fighters as told by them, not by the British,” she said.

Though she is a star filmmaker locally, she says she is yet to realise the benefits of her success.