Annual film fest ends, provides new skills

What is an image worth? Many will say, “Show me the image first.” In a Rwandan film titled Grey Matter at the recent 2012 Amakula Kampala Cinema Caravan Festival, a character tells the protagonist, an aspiring but misfiring film maker, “An image is worth a thousand words and film can be used to improve the lives of our people.” The image must however be amplified in mostly two ways. The image must be riveting and shocking. But also, it should be communicated with the best of mediums.

At the festival there was a variety of approaches to film harnessed to communicate the challenges and the pleasures of people throughout Africa. The progress of people can be measured by their expression but it also raised comparisons on the trends of development throughout the continent. We were brought to the understanding of the necessity of conserving our environment towards harmony in Solomon Jagwe’s animated film Galiwango. Still a work in progress, in the film the gorilla’s voice in first narrative narrates the plight of a constantly shrinking natural habitat on the backdrop of sprawling hills that we are told are the Virunga mountains of the Eastern Congo.

Politics where animated too and given a recognisable touch in Andrew Kaggia’s Wageuzi. In the short film, the Kenyan elections take on a dramatic perspective in a die-or-live motor race. Cars mutate into massively gadgeted robots purposed to inflict the death blow on the next contender. For a country whose last elections where turbulent it seemed to highlight the greed and struggle for power amongst politicians who would got to any end to ‘win’ an election.

Love, domestic conflict, marriage and the challenges of urban life are explored in Mozambican filmmaker Michelle Mathison’s two pieces, The Dowry and The Letter. In The Dowry the impotent but escapist Costa would rather blame his wife Sofia for failure to bear him children that face up to the societal ridicule that follows productive medication.

The much anticipated Who owns Africa by John Dormer raised further questions. For example, is DRC and Uganda the representation of the total block called Africa? Who is the authority on a way of life, the native or the foreigner? The deliberate attempt at framing African issues to feed a stereotype propelled me to visit the old assertion of how important it is for Africans to tell their own stories.

Among other activities were workshops that discussed issues like copyright, crowd funding and animation.

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