Lola Kenya Screen

Issued on July 6, 2007
“A vibrant film industry would bring Kenya double or triple its current GDP if Lion King, an African story animated by Hollywood that has travelled around the world raking in US$21 Billion, is anything to go by,” said Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications that handles audiovisual media matters.

Speaking on July 3, 2007 during the official launch of the second annual Lola Kenya Screen at Goethe-Institut, Nairobi, Dr Ndemo, who presided over the event, said the government of Kenya had embraced animation style of filmmaking and would promote it vociferously.

“As demonstrated by the success of Films by Children for Children made at Lola Kenya Screen in 2006, we in Kenya have the stories and the abilities to make many more Lion Kings and improve our livelihoods,” Dr Ndemo said. “With digital technology enabling us to make films we can no longer continue complaining if we can’t utilize our own stories. We must pick the positive elements from our cultures and promote them through film.”

Johannes Hossfeld, director of Goethe-Institut in Nairobi, applauded Lola Kenya Screen in his introductory remarks saying it is “a noble initiative that needs goodwill and support from cultural and development partners especially because it gives children and youth the rare opportunity to organise, run and present an event of this magnitude to the world.”

Some of the guests at the function that attracted members of the diplomatic corps, governmental and inter-governmental organisations, the civil society, local and international learning and research institutions and the media, included ambassadors Petr Kopriva (Czech Republic in Kenya), Bo Jensen (Denmark), and Rosalinda V Tirona (Philippine) and one of Uganda’s leading filmmakers, Caroline Kamya who travelled to Nairobi to attend the launch of eastern Africa’s first and only audiovisual media event exclusively designed for children and youth. Good Testimony Junior School, Nairobi South Primary School, Nairobi Primary School, Allen Grove School and several other schools in Nairobi also attended the function as did representatives of Kenya film Commission, and embassies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Germany.

The second Lola Kenya Screen runs August 6-11, 2007 with film screening between 9.30 am and 8.00 pm daily. The festival will be hosted at Goethe-Institut in Nairobi CBD, with film exhibition outreach to Mathare Valley and Industrial Area.

Announcing the programme line up, festival director Ogova Ondego said the theme of Lola Kenya Screen 2007 is, “Championing democracy, self expression, gender equity and literacy through film."

Ondego, who also doubles up as creative director said, “We at Lola Kenya Screen recognise that childhood is a significant and decisive period in one's life that should be treated respectfully and seriously. As such, our film line up not only treats the lives and feelings of children and youth seriously but the films we have selected portray children and youth as real, leading characters. The films we selected from the more than 250 entries we received from 45 nations tackle issues such as suicide bombing, corruption, child sexual abuse, comercialising education, following one's dream no matter what, dealing with grief , fairy tales with moral teaching, child labour, search for friendship, love and identity."

Besides Competition and Panorama screening sections, Lola Kenya Screen 2007 will have a special focus in her programme on Films by Children, Danish Films for Children and Youth, Films by Students, and Prix Jeunesse Suitcase: “A Window on the World.”

Ondego also announced that Lola Kenya Screen 2007 will host a Film Production workshop with children and youth, and a second workshop with adults on Producing Television Drama for Children.

Films competing for the Golden Mboni, Lola Kenya Screen top prize presented by the Children’s Jury, include: PUPPETS, 27 minutes, 2007, Taiwan AGARAM, 9 minutes, 2006, India VOOR EEN PAAR KNIKKERS MEER, 11 minutes, 2006, The Netherlands DER LACHENDE HUND, 8 minutes, 2006, Germany MORE, STRYCKU, PROC JE SLANE?, 20 minutes, 2006, Czech Republic LITTLE MAND, 13 minutes, 2006, Denmark GDZIE JEST NOWY ROK?, 2006, Poland ANTES Y DESPUES DE BESAR A MARIA, 9 minutes, 2007, Spain REAL SAHARAWI, 16 minutes, 2006, Uganda

PLAYGROUND, 21 minutes, 2006, Australia THE GIRL IN THE WINDOW, 4 minutes, 2006, Australia BLODSOSTRE, 30 minutes, 2006, Denmark MY DATE FROM HELL, 14 minutes, 2006, Germany MY GUITAR, 26 minutes, 2007, Rwanda ITMANNA, 13 minutes, 2006, Palestine/USA SHANTELL TOWN, 10 minutes, 2006, UK CROW LAKE, 63 minutes, 2007, Lithuania GIBORIM KTANIM, 76 minutes, 2006, Israel RINGO & TAHER, 51 minutes, 2006, Israel

Countries represented at Lola Kenya Screen 2007 are Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Taiwan, Thailand, Israel, India, Pakistan, England, Scotland, USA, Sweden, Czech Republic, Turkey, Canada, Romania, The Netherlands, Greece, Belgium, Palestine, Norway, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Australia, Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Philippines, Cyprus, Poland, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Latvia, Lithuania, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Mongolia.

Films by Children for Children, a compilation of nine short animation films made at the inaugural Lola Kenya Screen film production workshop in 2006, has been showcased at festivals in various countries including Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Germany, Poland, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Africa where it won the Africa Grand Prize during the Fifth World Summit on Media and Children in March 2007.

"Lola Kenya Screen may be just two years old, but no festival in eastern Africa has exhibited as many films from as many nations as we. Our age notwithstanding, Lola Kenya Screen has not only made films and marketed them across the world but has also beaten some leading film nations in Africa to the Grand Prize," added director Ondego.

While presenting the Grand Prize that Lola Kenya Screen won in South Africa to the management of the festival, PS Ndemo urged Kenyans to take filmmaking as a serious and important means of documenting “our cultures, environment and events for future generations.”

Dr Ndemo acknowledged that “the children’s achievement was a great challenge to the government and senior filmmakers especially because they have proved that with little support from the authorities Kenya can compete strongly at the world audiovisual stage, reaping the benefits other countries have through the film industry over the years.”

“We have the resources, stories and ability to make money more than the Lion King. Unlike our days when we used to swing on tress like monkeys, children today can instead use modern digital technology to make films. Let’s improve our livelihoods by taking initiatives like Lola Kenya Screen seriously and taking centre stage in participating in them,” added Dr Ndemo.

Films produced through such initiatives, based on local stories and positive indigenous cultures, he advised, would be marketed freely through the Internet Protocol TV (IPT), where they can be screened to world audience, making unprecedented incomes in return besides promoting Kenya internationally and improving local content on the broadcast media.

Ondego said, “Lola Kenya Screen shall once again seek to place audiovisual media tools in the hands of children and youth for the advancement of literacy, gender equity, self expression, and democracy. It shall equip young people to make films, appreciate and judge films, present the programme and report on the festival in its commitment to entrenching quality creativity in the socio-cultural milieu of Kenya and eastern Africa.”

Speaking at the same function, Olivia Ouko and Margaret Mliwa of the Ministry of Youth, youth Recreation and Development department, commended Lola Kenya Screen initiative as “having come at the right time when there was pressure to create enough constructive recreational initiatives for the youth that will not only contribute to their development, but will also contributes immensely towards improving there incomes and that of the country.”

Lola Kenya Screen 2007 is presented by ComMattersKenya in conjunction with Goethe-Institut in Nairobi.