Meet the reel women

Friday Entertainment Participants at the Udada Film Festival. PHOTOS: EMMANUEL MWENDWA

The curtains closed last Friday on the Udada Film Festival – the first ever movie fete held in the East African region dedicated entirely to a showcase of women-directed film productions.

The five-day event launched at the Nairobi National Museum’s Louis Leaky Auditorium also featured daily screenings, capacity-building forums and workshops spread across different venues.

These included the Goethe-Institut’s auditorium, the Michael Joseph Centre and the gala night at the Alliance Française. The event also provided an exchange platform for filmmakers to submit their productions drawn from East Africa and beyond.

Some of the forums focused on core film making aspects, ranging from the challenges of movie production, to project development, financing hurdles and distribution setbacks.

The festival’s co-ordinators Matrid Wanja Munene, Naomi N. Mwaura and Wanjiru Kinyanjui sent out international calls for submission of films produced by women.

About 160 movies were received and showcased during regular screening sessions.

 

WOMEN-RELATED ISSUES
According to Ms Munene, who is also director of the Twists of Fate, a short film, the event was timely because, many movie script stories revolve around women-related issues.

“Often African women are not visible as cinematographers, directors, producers or scriptwriters. From my own experience, when I tell people I am a film-director, they often cannot believe it. Many people think women can only serve in the sector as make-up artists or be on-set assistants.

However, the core vision for the Udada Festival Trust is broader: We want to both empower and celebrate African women in the arts in general,” she remarks.

Across the continent, Zimbabwe leads the way for women movie makers with its annual International Images Film Festival held in Harare.

The event’s director Tsitsi Dangarembga attended the Udada Film Festival and moderated a workshop addressing the theme Co-Productions in Film.

The festival’s other highlights included 16 hours of film screenings, during which 87 movies including short films, animations, and 15 feature films were featured.

Notably however, there were fewer films received from Africa and Kenya as well. Discussion forums were attended by members of the public and students invited to participate from local film making institutions.

The capacity building workshop panelists included film maker Judy Kibinge, who spoke about funding for film making, seasoned director Dr Rachael Anyango Diang’a (Script, Playwriting and Film Critique), Eva Mwaniki (Film Distribution) and German box-office actress Stephanie Stremler, leading star in Dust on our Hearts (Acting Roles) among other facilitators.

 

BROADER SCOPE
The Udada Film Festival intends to broaden its scope over the next couple of years, for instance by undertaking technical trainings for budding women filmmakers and also setting up a jury so as to award deserving movie makers, directors, producers, scriptwriters and actresses.

In the long term, the festival is expected to bring to the fore women filmmakers, who for years in Africa, have been relegated to the sector’s side-lines.

The initiative also seeks to provide a platform for established and emerging female talent “...to exhibit their work, discuss, exchange ideas and engage in broader networking...”

Some of the local productions screened during the festival included Saikati The Enkabaani (Catherine Mungai), The Bicycle (Dommie Odotte), Uhiki (Matrid Nyagah), Price of A Daughter (Jane Murago-Munene), Tough Choices (Ann Mungai) and The Lucky One and Shoes (Caroline Kitili).

Others were Beautiful People (Charity Mara), Someone (Faith King’ola), Deep End (Tracy Kibue), Babu’s Baby (Christine Bala), Road of Death (Sofia De Fay) and Unbroken Spirit (Jane Munene).