Our 8th annual festival returns with the best possible films for children, youth and family from Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Egypt, Abu Dhabi (UAE), India, South Korea, Bulgaria, Spain, Australia, USA, Poland, Greece, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Singapore, Germany, Brazil, Austria, and Canada on December 2, 2013
Full length as well as short fictional, documentary, animation and experimental works in genres such diverse genres as drama, juvenile, fantasy, western, horror, social, romantic comedy, romance, mystery, black comedy, science fiction, thriller, suspense, survival, post-apocalypcy, fantastic thriller, infomercial, docu-fiction, adventure,audio drama, controversy, grotesque, music video, and road movie shall be showcased.
The films are in English, Spanish, Polish, Greek, Bulgarian, Malayalam, Quiche, Kikamba, Arabic, French, German, no dialogue, Hindi, Chhattisgarhi, Portuguese and Kiswahili.
Like in the previous seven editions, we shall equip children and youth with the skills to conceive, create, appreciate, promote and consume high quality mass (primarily, audiovisual) media content that is both appropriate and sensitive to the audience and cultures of a multicultural modern society.
With the festival set to end on December 7, 2013, we have strengthened our affirmative action approach to helping grow African and Kenyan media content for children and youth as manifested in sections such as Best Student Film, Best Film by a Child, Best Kenyan Film and Best Eastern Africa Film.
As ever, we shall explore, identify, nurture and flaunt creativity among children and youth in filmmaking, journalism, creative appreciation, event organisation & presentation, and media and information literacy between 10.00AM and 4.00PM daily.
The mentors lined up to impart skills and share experiences with the children and youth in the official skills-development programmes are all drawn from Kenya.
Just what are the skills-development programmes that Lola Kenya Screen offers and why do they target children and youth?
These are practical, hands-on, learn-as-you-do training that seek to equip the generation of today and tomorrow—children and youth—with the skills to manage their day-to-day living even long after the festival. For example, the children and youth who pass through these programmes take the skills they acquire with them back to school and to their communities.
The skills acquired in cultural journalism or creative writing are expected to help boost the performance of participants in their class; for example, in writing English composition or Kiswahili insha or in just tackling any writing assignment.
Those in filmmaking class also learn how to tell stories visually and help their communities in camerawork or videography during social functions like school prize-giving days, graduation ceremonies, birthdays or other celebrations that the communities would normally have to hire someone else to document.
In short, our mentorship programmes are aimed at equipping children and youth with the skills for fishing for themselves instead of having to rely on someone else to provide them with the fish whenever they feel hungry.
