UgaWood's Film Evolution

While walking, riding or driving around town in the evening, you might hear loud speakers advertising a new Ugandan movie on the market. As you get closer, you are confronted by young people, usually boys or sometimes adults holding out DVDs for you to scrutinize and hopefully buy. I must confess that some have very remarkable poster designs. Other times, promoters on roller skates draw your attention as they come to the window of a taxi you might be in. “It only costs 5,000 UgShs!” the skate-man will seductively tell you. This is a phenomenon I never witnessed regularly in the 1990s even for VHS cassettes or VCDs. At that time, the filming of Ugandan drama was still budding.

The vigorous evolution started when Ugandans got tired of the celluloid colonization and cultural intoxication from Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood while the glory of raw unexploited local talent was quite faint on the silver screen. Other notable film influences included Southern Africa (Consequences, Sarafina, Yellow Card), Europe and the Far East (a trend highlighted by the free Japanese Film Festivals). In the 1970s and 80s, the capital (Kampala) had four major cinemas through which the Japa-Chinese invaded the Ugandan film market armed with projector films featuring their kung-fu styled dramas. Since Bruce Lee and his comrades could conquer America, then how about the ‘Pearl of Africa’? They are still crowd pullers in the ‘kibanda’ (Luganda word for ‘video shack’, usually wooden) where most, if not all, movies have voice over translations for the peasant and middle class audience to enjoy. This is the alternative for English captions. The ‘kibanda’ is furthermore friendly to everybody’s pocket. In 2008, any movie whether new or old, could be viewed at a cost as low as 200 UgShs or 100 UgShs in rural areas. Meanwhile, the all powerful City cinemas charged over five to 10 times as much.

Ugandans are beginning to believe that they can also do it. Film clubs can be found in schools doing projects, and in theatres sharing ideas. A local community-based production series ‘That’s Life Mwattu’ popular in the early 1990s can now be viewed anywhere in the world on the continental DStv service’s Africa Magic Channel. Buziga Hill, just outside the capital is being turned into ‘Uganda’s Hollywood’. In addition, talented Ugandan actors like Philip Luswata are taking part in overseas film productions. The Oscar Award-winning film ‘The Last King of Scotland’ for Best Actor (Forrest Whitaker) was shot and produced in Uganda, propelling the country into stardom though other films like Raid on Entebbe, Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala and an episode of the TV comedy ‘The Steve Harvey Show’ hinted on Uganda. The Amakula Film Festival is also a productive platform for filmmakers plus enthusiasts to share and enjoy the thrill local creativity has to offer. Basically, the future looks bright for the Ugandan film industry (fondly called ‘Kina- Uganda’, Pearlywood and Ugawood) even at this year’s 5th Amakula Festival. East Africa's Maisha Filmlab founded in Uganda by Mira Nair (Tanzanian born Musarait Kashmiri was it's first versatile Program Director in 2005), besides other production houses, annually opens doors for selected applicants to explore the technical makeup of film production and receive expert coaching from accomplished personalities in the wider industry.

With the influx of computers to Uganda, illegal reproduction of movies is a huge business that allows many people to not only own cheap, perfect, digital copies of blockbuster movies but also tamper with their content in creative ways if they wish. Appreciation of foreign films in Uganda has cut so deep that Ugandans now want to export what they have learnt by producing more of their own stories. From Ashraf Ssimwogerere’s Murder in the City to Matt Bish’s Battle of the Souls, quality keeps changing too.

YouTube (interestingly TIME magazine’s Man of the Year 2006), arguably the Most Fantastic Website that allows individuals to upload their videos for the world to see, is also a powerful tool some Ugandans are using to good effect to, for instance, promote their music idols like Tanzania-based Ugandan Ziggy D. All you need to do is get a camera and start shooting creatively. Then you create an account and upload your video on the internet’s gift to filmmakers.

The music industry does not want to exist without video. That is why some of the big artistes such as Bobi Wine have ventured beyond videos for their songs to working on feature length films and commercials. The relationship is mutually strong; movies would be meaningless to some film buffs without soundtracks. Imagine Titanic without Celine Dion, maybe some lovers would not cherish the movie. Trust me, 2 Fast 2 Furious without Ludacris’ promotional hit by the same title (Sub-title: ‘Act a Fool’) would just be too ludicrous to some people. Enjoy the 2008 Amakula Kampala Film Festival, it’s truly a "Parallel Universe"!