Bobi Wine primed to continue Uganda’s dodgy Oscar record

Uganda’s film industry is growing by leaps and bounds, with the sheer volume of films produced and later released in the country offering tangible support. Despite all this, the industry is yet to submit a film fit to win one of the many categories at the annual Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars.

This has, however, not kept Uganda out of the conversations at the Oscars. In fact, in 2019, the country got its first Academy selection committee. Its aim is to pick a Ugandan film to represent in the Best International Film category. The committee was established to showcase the growing talent and potential of Ugandan filmmakers on a global stage.

With this new development, there is hope that Uganda will soon produce a film that not only represents the country but also has the potential to win an Oscar in the future.

That said; it takes more than a film to get that Oscar nomination or even a shortlist. For instance, in 2008, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine’s documentary War Dance was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film. As much as War Dance is not a Ugandan film, its core, story, and inspiration are from Uganda.

The film centres on three children—Nancy, a 13-year-old choir singer; Rose, a 14-year-old dancer; and Dominic Akena, a 14-year-old xylophone player. They are members of the Acholi ethnic group, living in the remote northern Uganda refugee camp of Patongo, which is under military protection from the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group led by Joseph Kony. In 2005, the camp’s primary school won its regional music competition and headed to Kampala to participate in the annual National Music Competition.

The film made a sweep at a number of award shows but lost the Academy Award. The directors later visited Uganda and screened the film in Gulu, meeting with many of the children who had been featured in the documentary.

Before War Dance, Ugandans had picked interest in the Oscars when Kevin MacDonald’s The Last King of Scotland was making the rounds. Forest Whitaker, the lead actor, was expected to sweep a number of Best Actor accolades. And indeed he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Idi Amin.

The Last King of Scotland is an adaptation of Giles Foden’s book of the same name that follows a plot that sees Amin’s dictatorship through the eyes of his Scottish physician, Nicholas Garrigan.

The film also had a Ugandan premiere. It was a flashy event attended by President Museveni, among other dignitaries.

Landmark nomination

On Tuesday, Uganda earned her first Oscar nomination for Bobi Wine: The People’s President. The film, directed by Ugandan filmmakers Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, was announced as one of the five nominees for Best Documentary Feature.

Other nominated films are: The Eternal Memory; Four Daughters; To Kill a Tiger; and 20 Days in Mariupol.

The film chronicles the journey of Bobi Wine, a newly sworn-in lawmaker, who goes on to vie for the biggest seat of the land. But don’t be fooled; that is not the way the story is told. What we see is basically the challenges Bobi Wine’s campaign experiences as he faces the incumbent president in an election.

The film is almost a continuation of two other films that have been connected to Uganda and both got Oscar nominations. It chronicles a difficult time brought about by politics or war.

The difference, though, is that unlike War Dance, which was primarily filmed in Gulu after the war, or The Last King of Scotland, which was shot in Kampala nearly 30 years after Idi Amin’s overthrow, Bobi Wine: The People’s President is about events that happened a few years ago.

The subject of the documentary is still an active politician, rallying and calling out both the president and his government about different issues.

Mr Godfrey Musinguzi, the chairman of the Uganda Oscar Selection Committee, says the tricky part about the film is the fact that it deals with current situations and, unlike The Last King of Scotland, it’s real.

“We had wanted to be the ones to submit the film to the Oscars, to be entered as a Ugandan selection for Best International Film, but the filmmaker wasn’t confident that the Uganda Media Council would freely classify the film,” Musinguzi told Sunday Monitor.

Media Council threat

Uganda Media Council is responsible for classifying content that broadcasts or is exhibited to Ugandans. The council has previously banned films such as the 2014 Martin Scorsese’s hit The Wolf of The Wall Street for what was deemed as improper language and scenes. It also banned Fifty Shades of Grey even when cinemas had not announced to show the film.

However, behind protecting the morals of Uganda, the Media Council has also prevented a number of screenings, especially when it comes to films that could be critical of the regime.

In 2019, for instance, a documentary film, Chilli on the Lips, had been scheduled to screen at the Kampala Amakula International Film Festival. However, upon the festival curator submitting the films to the Media Council, the documentary film wasn’t passed to screen and neither was there an explanation.

“They told us they are still reviewing the film,” Polly Kamukama, the festival curator, would later tell the audience.

Chilli on the Lips later won Best Documentary Film at the festival, becoming the only film to win without being screened. The documentary film follows the life of Cameroonian rapper General Valsero (born Gaston Abe) who has used his fame, music and influence to highlight the gross misuse of power and corruption by President Paul Biya in Cameroon. The rapper has in the past been arrested and exiled. He nonetheless remains vocal.

Lofty hurdle

Musinguzi says he was planning on screening Bwayo’s Bobi Wine documentary because he believes that would have fostered a conversation on the place of film in not only shaping a narrative but being part of it. However, he is not too sure if there’s a Ugandan cinema that would have allowed to screen the film. The problem is: for a film to be considered for Best International Film at the academy awards, it needs to screen in its parent country for at least seven days.

At the moment, even when there’s a lot of romp among filmmakers about Bwayo becoming Uganda’s first filmmaker to get an Oscar nomination, state functionaries are not fazed. There hasn’t also been a communication or message from the Uganda Communication Commission and yet they organise the annual Uganda Film Festival.

“Of course this nomination is double edged. On one hand it’s showing the world that Ugandan filmmakers can be amazing, but, again, I can imagine how hard it is going to become for any Ugandan trying to make a documentary film,” Musinguzi says.

On Friday, Bobi Wine hosted a free screening of the film at NUP headquarters. The screening, which is also the unofficial Ugandan premiere of the film, coincided with the National Resistance Movement’s celebration of their 38 anniversary when they came to power.

“Despite the incredible intimidation and violence meted out on our people today, I am grateful to the hundreds of you who turned up to watch the documentary. I am especially grateful to the families of the victims who showed up and were watching it for the first time. Those victims are the real heroes of our revolution!” Bobi Wine posted later.

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