Take 1; What makes a film good
Quote, “I want my audience to eat like Kings!” End of quote.
New quote, “I want to make good movies not these kina-Ugandas you see around (meaning Ugandan movies made in the fashion of Nollywood movies).” end of quote.

This byte is a lovely embellishment brought to you by one of the filmmakers on what I may term, the most savoury night this festival has had yet. It was a night of exchanges with a fiery audience putting filmmakers on the spot, save for one who had brought along enough cheerleaders to keep the dogs at bay.
Bouncing across the room like a squash ball tonight was the question what makes a film good.

Ugandan filmmakers indeed showcased sufficient progress in filmmaking but the near full auditorium was taking no hostages. One filmmaker who had made a rather boring film about who should carry the blame for unemployment bore the biggest brunt of it. In truth, his concept was catchy; Young people vs Uganda, but like ice cream; caught the eye as fast as it melted. “Form follows function,” was the message they gave him. “You have to make your story clear!”

For the sake of this being out there, I want you to know that I do feel guilty putting films on the guillotine and I respect every person who sets out to make a film. It is easy to sit down and say this wasn’t done right and that was lame but I have produced plays, books and other stage shows and I understand what it means to get a concept out of your head and produce it for others to enjoy. Things don’t always work out the way you want and often times you have make do with what you get.

That said, I am paid to give an honest opinion about the goings-on at the festival so I can now return to the bashing now that we have established that I have empathy.

Take 2; Why that movie wasn’t so great
Today’s special guest comes from Uganda focus; The Painter written and directed by Winner Gamisha. I will not comment about the writing lest you think me cynical but incidentally, this very great filmmaker fancies herself to be the Ugandan Spielberg of sorts so I must treat her filmmaking as such.

Behind the camera was a German guy with German thoroughness called Andreas Frowein. They are the fantastic duo from the documentary I heaped praise on yesterday for having such quality photography and natural action.

Given the difficulty level in getting villagers to act natural with a camera in their face, I had expected them to stomp all over feature filming alas that was not to be the case. The photography was good no doubt; brilliant shots, good use of lighting, etc, etc. But that was just about its only strong point.

The acting, on the other leg, was no new story. 99% percent of the time the actors were camera conscious, it was written all over their faces, and when it came to bringing the characters to life, no one performance was convincing.

You see, we here in Uganda have a long and great hang over for theatre. Theatre is expressive and we are an expressive people ergo acting for us translates into exaggerated action, beaten out humour, things that are at home on stage but a nuisance to the lover of film.

In my understanding, the point feature filming is make-believe. I want to believe that something is really happening, to feel like I am a fly on a wall watching real events happen, not to see that someone is acting. In the case of The Painter, the acting was a big let down and for me that made all its finer points wasted.

I have dwelt on this minor point for a while but for good reason. Ugandan filmmakers need to understand that if they are ever going to make any movies worth mention, they need to take casting seriously. This business of casting theatre actors just because they happen to hang in your social circles or are seen a lot on TV doesn’t mean they can act.

Michael Wawuyo is great man and a fine gentleman. He is one of our most celebrated actors and I have seen him on stage and enjoyed him to my heart’s thrill. However, on screen, Michael is still a theatre star and so was everyone else in the movie. Keloy Kemigisha, the lady who plays the painter’s mother was overly dramatic and if Gamisha was trying to make a movie not like ki-Nigeria, this lady torpedoed her plans. She was lucky to have funny enough lines to obstruct the audience but she was an excellent recite, not an actress.

Take 4; Biggie, Biggie, Biggie, can’t U c, smetymz yo luv jus hipnotyz me
But for all the over enactment, the audience was eating out of the palms of this movie. I suspect a conspiracy...but that’s just me. You see, this feature had a cast which in Ugandan star currency is the equivalent of the cast in The Departed. Every name in it is big in local arts so they had a lot of support and I had to wonder who was being cheered; the film, or the actors.

At some point the reel stopped and pandemonium nearly broke loose. When the presenter came to stall while the technicians sorted themselves out, he thanked his gods there no stones in the auditorium for he would have been made an example of. Eventually we finished it and the Director was greeted to a thunderous applause. In the wake of the applause that she triumphantly declared herself to have set a bar of sorts, and the audience was in hysteric agreement.

Take 4; Houston this is Radio Katwe... We have a problem.
I was in disbelief. NO, NO. NO. This feature is no way different from the so-called Ugawoods. Despite the superior filming, the storytelling may even have been weaker. The portrayals of the characters were unreal and that would have been forgivable if it’s was sci-fi but it dealt with issues that actually happen everyday. For one I had a problem with it being entirely cast in English because that made it lose authenticity. An African filmmaker casting an illiterate character in English... Where is the Afrocentricity?

…but how do you solve the problem about Maria...
These are my two cents to all Uganda filmmakers; seek out fresh talent. There are people out there who have never been on screen, have plenty of space to learn and would do twice the decent job for even less. Arts are all about talent. That is why they are broad; so that every one can find where they fit and we can all join hands and sing how many sons had father Abraham. Take a leaf from Francophone classics, even with poor filming the acting still uncontrived. (olive branch rises above writer’s head) .....to be continued.
*written by Edgar Kangere