Africa in Pictures
A sneak peak behind the scenes of Nollywood.
Commentary
Discussing cellphone filmmaking in Africa
Tutorial
Character development with Oladipo Agboluaje
With Tunde Kelani
Kelani talks about his new film, Arugba.
With Emeka Mba
Director of NFVCB speaks on regulation.
The Figurine unveiled
Kunle Afolyan looks deeper into the film.
Jozi Kings rules!
Justice Umeh speaks on his new film, Jozi Kings.
>Stephen Ocen in Kamya's Imani.
> Kamya & Rehema Nanfuka at AMAA.
> Behind the scenes of Kamya's Imani.
You shot your film using the RED camera; can you talk us through your production experience?
I travelled to Vancouver were I mange to shadow a director on the set of a HBO production, I had a chat with the crew about my film and the camera assistant said he was interested and suggested we shoot my film on the RED camera and that’s how it all happened.
We didn’t have much money but we had lots and lots of passion. We got a camera, a focus puller, a camera operator and a really wicked fantastic D.O.P, Andrew – this was his first feature film, so he was happy to volunteer on the shoot.
We paid for his ticket and that of his crew and everyone worked for free. Making films is not easy even in Hollywood but boy, in Uganda we have no film infrastructure, our actors were not trained we had to teach them what to do it was a crazy but very wonderful filming experience.
What would you define as your filmmaking style and philosophy?
I have been influenced a lot by my background as a documentary filmmaker; the way I inter-cut the three main characters will be familiar to anyone who has seen my previous works as a documentary filmmaker.
I didn’t want to plan everything with military precision before hand, so I got my material and started to work with it, which is pretty much my style.
What other projects are you working on?
I am working on one Swedish projects which is called Doc’s Lab were they select filmmakers from all over the world and get them to work with Hollywood filmmaker, so I will be going to Sweden a couple of times this year to submit a projects for that programme.
What films have influenced you as a director?
Many African filmmakers from the 60s and 70s, especially francophone filmmakers like Ousmane Sembene and more recently Abderrahmane Sissako who made the film Bamako, he was actually a mentor of mine when I was doing the Director’s lab in Kampala.
I have also been influenced by filmmakers from Europe and America.
Where have you screened Imani?
We had our world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2010 and the local premiere in Uganda just recently on the 6th of May.
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> 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
