Africa in Pictures
A sneak peak behind the scenes of Nollywood.
Commentary
Discussing cellphone filmmaking in Africa
Tutorial
Character development with Oladipo Agboluaje
Jozi Kings rules!
Justice Umeh speaks on his new film, Jozi Kings.
With Emeka Mba
Director of NFVCB speaks on regulation.
The Figurine unveiled
Kunle Afolyan looks deeper into the film.
Egyptian Animation
Mohamed Ghazala speaks on African animation.
> Screen shot from Kamya's Imani.
> Kamya & Rehema Nanfuka at AMAA.
> Stephen Ocen in Kamya's Imani.
IMANI is the debut feature film by award wining documentary filmmaker Caroline Kamya, born in Uganda, lived in Kenya and studied documentary filmmaking at Goldsmith college London - Caroline brings a different approach to filmmaking – an approach influenced by her experience living abroad and her background in documentary storytelling.
The film Imani, which is a product of Caroline’s tenacity and drive, won the best film in an African language at this 6th African Movie Academy Awards which took place this year in Nigeria.
African screens’ Don Omope speaks to Caroline about her film, her approach to filmmaking and the Ugandan film industry.
Tell us about the Ugandan film industry.
The Ugandan film industry is still in its early stages; we have got three different types of films being made in here.
1) There are those who make short experimental art films for the art house crowd.
2) There is Cina-Uganda, which is like the Nigerian Nollywood pop films shot in a week and edited in a week.
3) We also have the type of film I make, which is cinema film aimed at local and international film audience.
Why these characters, a break-dancer, a maid and a child solider?
The three main characters reflect Uganda society, most families in Africa have maids, it’s just common and I have always being intrigued by the way people treat those that work in their homes and how the maids feel themselves.
The child soldier, Gulu is a part of Uganda were there has been conflict for many years but the war is over and most film about Uganda don’t reflect this, they still look at Uganda from the view point of Idi Amin or child soldiers.
Break dancing has been going on for many years but it just kicked off big time in Kampala and people now make a living from it, so I wanted to also reflect this in the film, though my initial idea was to make a documentary about them.
How long did it take to shoot the film? And how did you go about funding it?
I raised the initial funds for the films myself; I saved some money from producing content for brands, NGOs and fixing for the BBC and Channel 4 when they come filming here in Uganda. I also applied for funds from the Global Film Initiative.
We started filming in 2008, we film through November and December, then we edited through January and February 2009.
What was your budget?
Well we spent about 100,000 pounds on the film.
Your film is popular in Uganda and also internationally, you won the AMAA for best film in an African Language. What’s your response to this?
I was chuffed Don, you just caught me a couple of days after our VIP premiere. I went back to my box office to check on my publicity materials and heard a few people ask that they would like to see my film Imani and my heart was filled with joy, and skipped a beat for a minute, to hear that at home is so powerful and I think any African filmmaker will understand the way I felt at that moment.
For people to pay three pounds to watch a Ugandan movie over Blockbusters films from the States is a big deal and it’s amazing.
> NEXT PAGE
> Screen shot of Actress Rehema Nanfuka in the award-winning film, Imani.
Interview by Don Omope | Photos courtesy of Caroline Kamya
Ugandan director, Caroline Kamya, on her award winning film, Imani
