In which filmmaker Kimi Takesue travels North and programmer Gertjan Zuilhof finds the most talented guy in town.
Most of the time things went smooth in Kampala en we had a good time. We met a lot of kind persons. We visited places that you can hardly describe as lively. They were volcanic. Bursting with energy and packed with people. Quite often our new friends and also strangers warned us for possible dangers. They for example asked Kimi: did you go to the Owino market with that necklace?
Just off the Owino Market in Kampala.
The morning after the warning a snatch thief took the necklace by ripping it off. In broad daylight. On a busy street. Just a minute walk from the heavily guarded hotel. Only later we heard that the women working in the hotel always took all jewelry off when they leave the building. For Kimi the little chain had mostly sentimental value and it did not stop her from her plan to go up north with friend and actor Okello to visit a sanctuary for children who were orphanaged by the civil war. I quoted to Okello a passage from the latest edition of The Lonely Planet on the region (dangerous they write), but he assured me that it was safe and promised to take good care of my filmmaker.
Kimi Taksue repacking to go up North Uganda.
Now that I did not have to carry tripods around anymore I could use the rest of my time in Uganda to do what a programmer should do: hanging out with filmmakers. The National Theatre sounds like an official place but it is not. It is a very lively place that has something to offer every night and every room, corner, field, roof in and around it is used for jam sessions, work shops, meetings and plays. At a comedy night easily a thousand people turn up to watch an entertaining show with local stand up comedians, everybody seated outside on the grass on self carried plastic chairs. Also filmmakers use the building to rehearse with actors or just to meet each other. The local Film Club meets in the building to have work shops with aspiring actors and directors. Everybody is eager and nobody talks money (I guess because nobody has any).
Work Shop with Young Actors in the Kampala Film Club.
Also in the National Theatre I had a meeting with scriptwriter and director Irene Kulabako. In fact we met in the so called control room of the theatre, the cabin at the back of the big theatre hall. It is the kingdom of technician Leonard and only later I realized I could have saved me a lot of time by going to him in his control room first. Everybody passes through his room and he knows everybody. I took the liberty of setting up all my meetings in his control room on my last day in town and indeed everybody could find it blindfolded. Back to Irene. She told me how they set up a group with some collegue professionals with the idea to make a movie a year without funding. All members bring in themselves, their equipment and their skills for free. And every year they set themselves a technical challenge on top of that. This year it is special effects with rain and fog. I think it is a wonderful idea. She gave me dvd's, so later I will write about the result.
Filmmaker Irene Kulabako in National Theatre control room.
In Uganda I had some good advisors in Alice Smits and Lee Ellickson who run the Amakula Film Festival in the country. They are not locals (she is from Holland and he from the US), but they are as close to locals as muzungus (whites) can come. During my stay in Kampala they were out of the country, but they gave me an impressive shopping list and borrowed me their assistant Sarah who drove me around and who by the way showed me how to keep too persistent hustlers on a distance. One of the many names on the list was a Samson. He was highly recommended, but not easy to track down. At the end of my stay I finally met him and I realized soon that it was worth the effort. He goes by the artist/graffiti name Xenson (full name Ssenkaaba Samson) and is a trained painter, video artist and fashion designer. Yes, fashion designer. In October he will have a show in Paris. I saw some of his shorts and music video's (he is coming out of the hip hop scene, where he also started to make urban cloths) and I was very impressed. They belong to the best in the genre. He also told me about his installations (in which he can combine his many talents) and I guess it would be nice to have him make one in Rotterdam. I will check it out.
Fashion designer and video artist Xenson, Kampala, Uganda.