Category Archives: Uganda

9·88 Films | Ultra-Short Filmmaking Challenge

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9.88

Deadline: 9 April.

Influenced by the energy and intensity of the 100m sprint (a global event that captivates audiences in under 10 seconds.), 9·88 Films invites filmmakers of all levels of experience in Scotland, the UK, and across the Commonwealth to create films up to 10 seconds long, on any subject and using any form of moving image, and submit it online.

Three award winners, and a student winner, will be selected by an industry jury, to win great prizes and have their films showcased in Glasgow and beyond during the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Here are guidelines for submission of entries:

  • Entries must be no longer than 10 seconds.
  • All genres and forms of moving image are welcome.
  • Due to the online nature of 9.88 Films, the challenge is only open to entrants aged 18 and over.
  • Entries are invited from people living or born in a Commonwealth country.
  • Entry should be suitable for audiences of all ages.
  • Do not include a title card or credits. All shortlisted films will have a branded title and credits added at the start, based on your entry information.

Prizes include a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera (a Super 16 digital film camera), DaVinci Resolve (an advanced colour grading software), GoPro Hero3+ cameras and Adobe Premiere Elements 12.0 (easy-to-use video editing software). For more details about the prizes go here.

All prize winners will be awarded pre-feature screenings in cinemas including Glasgow Film Theatre, Filmhouse, and Dundee Contemporary Arts, with support from Cinema Arts Network. They’ll also receive a 12 month Shooting People membership. Every film that makes the shortlist will be part of a series of screenings in the UK and further afield, including:

  • The opportunity to be showcased in Channel 4’s short form strand The Shooting Gallery*.
  • Festival 2014 screenings (a games time celebration as part of the official cultural programme for Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games)
  • Glasgow Merchant City Festival 2014
  • Exposure to an international audience through the British Council

* subject to editorial approval and clearance.

For tips and tricks to help you get started, watch 9.88 Films’ video hints. Such as this one:

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Kampala Art Biennale 2014 | Call For Submissions

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Kampala Biennale

Kampala Art Biennale is a showcase of contemporary art from Africa with the aim to expose, educate and create debate about the value of art in our society. They are calling all artists working in Africa to apply to partake in the first Kampala Art Biennale. Applications are now open and you are requested to apply online through their website. Application is free of charge and deadline for entries is March 31st 2014.

Theme

The first Kampala Art Biennale 2014 is themed: Progressive Africa. The theme is derived from the current Pan African – and increasingly global discussion and discourse that Africa’s economic growth and development is booming and happening right now. Popular phrases heard are: “Africa Is The Future” and “Africa Rising”,

Today…you will come across divergent conversations between different kinds of people; African with African, African with European, Indian with American, all talking about the status of Africa in the global village. Some will say Europe and the rest of the world are moving to Africa for opportunities while others will say African economies are growing into Global markets. In these conversations there is talk about which strategies are the best to accelerate Africa’s progress towards fulfilling the millennium development goals (MDGS) such as curbing poverty, improving formal education…There is increased concern from the west about increased Chinese investment on the continent…All these vibrations suggest one thing; that something is happening on the African continent whether right now as it moves into the future.

The Kampala Art Biennale 2014 is part of this discussion and is calling on African painters, photographers, illustrators, cartoonists, writers and all 2D media artists to present their perception of the current status of Africa through visual art. The verdict will result in over 100 images pro or against the purported progress, with viewers and visitors joining in on the discussion with the help of the visual aids. They believe that this will result in the questioning of African political, social and economic practices.

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Vote for ‘Yellow Fever’ ! | Afrinolly Short Film Competition

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yellow fever

Yellow Fever, by Kenyan artist and filmmaker Ng’endo Mukii has been shortlisted for the Afrinolly short film competition! Yellow Fever won the Silver Hugo for Best Animated Short at the Chicago International Film Festival, Best Short at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards, Best Student Film at the Underexposed Film Festival YC, and a Special Mention at the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen.

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This is the first time it is available to watch online in full for free, ALL 7 minutes of rotoscoping, hand-drawn animation, pixilation and dancing! The film stands the chance to win, $5000 (3rd place) $10,000 (2nd place) and $25,000 (1st place).
Voting ends on Sunday 19th of January.

All you need to do is:
-click here
-Log in using your google+ or Facebook ID (the more the merrier!)
-Yellow Fever is in the Documentary category and you can vote there.

This is the first time Yellow Fever is available to watch online in full for free, ALL 7 minutes of rotoscoping, hand-drawn animation, pixilation, dancing, sweat and blood!!
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East Africa Sundance Institute Theatre Lab | Zanzibar

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563050_10151659964608515_644199448_nUnder the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the two-week exchange and development program (November 10-24) is part of the Sundance Institute East Africa initiative, now in its eleventh year, a professional program that creates peer to peer mentorship and exposure opportunities between theatre artists in East Africa and the U.S.  In the spirit of this exchange, Sundance Institute East Africa engages with East African artists in Africa as well as East African artists sharing their work in the U.S. Deborah Asiimwe, Specialist-East Africa, and Roberta Levitow, Senior Program Associate-International and Co-Founder, Theatre Without Borders, co-led this initiative.

While advancing the growth of individual artistic voices, they provide mentorship and professional development opportunities-recognizing and honoring the specific cultural, social, political, and artistic realities of East African life (unique to each country as well as to the continent) within both the design and the implementation of the Program. Sundance Institute East Africa is not a training program.

The primary goals of this exchange are to foster:

  • The growth of the American theatre artist and field through interactions in East Africa and with East African artists
  • The growth of the East African theatre artist and field through international exposure and exchange

 

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Sundance Institute have announced the artists and projects selected for its first Theatre Lab on Zanzibar, which have now concluded. Deborah Asiimwe, Specialist-East Africa, and Roberta Levitow, Senior Program Associate-International and Co-Founder, Theatre Without Borders, co-led this initiative.

Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said,

Our East Africa initiative is rooted in the understanding that exchange opportunities for independent artists, though rare, promote the inclusiveness and diversity of story that ultimately serves to advance the field of theatre.

Himberg said,

This is our third residency in the region. Two previous Labs were hosted on Manda Island, Kenya. Hosting our first Theatre Lab on Zanzibar, Tanzania, as part of our longstanding East Africa initiative allowed us to extend our unique and renowned model of creative support to artists in the region. We are grateful to our artists, both in East Africa and from the U.S., for contributing to an international conversation that enables us to better understand the role of the artist in our respective cultures.

The creative teams and projects participating in the Theatre Lab on Zanzibar were:

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Kendu Hearth | Conference on Innovation & Hybridity in African & International Theatre

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1001802_10153023197035360_1514434804_nKEBUForum, in collaboration with international theatre companies IFT (It’s A Freedom Thing theatre), and Volcano Theatre present a pilot programme during a celebratory week of public discourse on innovation and hybridity in African and international storytelling. During these five days, conversations, master classes, panel discussions and performances will be presented to ensure a theoretical approach as well as practical demonstration of hybrid form of theatre. There will be reflection and dialogue on what ethos to carry into work inspired by works that are cutting edge, works that push boundaries, and works that are experimental. The Conference will draw Speakers and Participants from three different Continents: Africa, Europe and North America.

From 26th-31st of August 2013, notable Ugandan and International theater-makers will lead conversations, offer workshops, and showcase their work at Buzz restaurant and lounge, Bugolobi, Kampala.

Award-winning Kenyan writer, Binyavanga Wainaina, will deliver the keynote speech on ‘Owning the African narrative.’ The theme of the conference is “Innovation and Hybridity in African and International Performance.” Key topics for discussion include:

  • Sustainable theatre business practice/finding funding
  • Embracing multiple narratives and art forms
  • Ugandanness, Africanness and Blackness
  • “She is the story”: women and the theatre
  • Theatre as a political advocate

Each day will feature public performances, including poetry by Donna Michelle St. Bernard and a musical theater piece Dawn of the Pearl by Acaye E. Pamela on Wednesday August 28, 2013 at the Sheraton hotel, Kampala.

 

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On Thursday August 29, Nova Bhattacharya, a Toronto-based Bharanatayam dancer, will blend this ancient Indian dance form with modern dance at 6pm at Buzz restaurant and lounge. Friday night will host the premier African performance of the internationally acclaimed play White Rabbit, Red Rabbit by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour; the piece will star celebrated Ugandan sketch comic Frobisha  Lwanga.

Master classes are free but require prior online registration as space is limited; panel discussions, presentations and most other events are free and open to the public with the exception of a few paid benefit performances. For further information, including program details, prices, times, and to register online please visit the Kendu Hearth website, their Facebook page and find them on twitter.

Organisers
mumbi

Photo credit: Mariuxi Zambrano

Mumbi Tindyebwa is a Kenyan-Ugandan-Canadian Theatre creator and Director raised in Kenya and Victoria, BC and now based in Toronto. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of IFT Theatre and recent participant in the distinguished Michael Langham Workshop in Classical Direction at Stratford Shakespeare Festival. In 2011, Mumbi was honored with the Mallory Gilbert Leadership Protege Award and nominated for the John Hirsch Award in Direction. She has also received funding support for her work and development as an artist through the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Theatre Ontario.

deborah asiimwe

Photo credit: Philippa Ndisi Hermann

Currently working as Specialist for Sundance Institute East Africa in New York, Deborah Asiimwe is an award winning playwright, performer, and producer. She is a 2006 recipient of a scholarship of merit in Writing for Performance from California Institute of the Arts, where she graduated with a Master in Fine Arts (MFA) degree in 2009. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from Makerere University, in Kampala-Uganda. Asiimwe is a recipient of the 2010 Theatre Communications Group (TCG) New Generation Future Leaders grant to work with the Sundance Institute Theatre Program.

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Call for Submissions | DOCUBOX – The East African Documentary Film Fund

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docu

DOCUBOX is a new East African documentary film fund that supports documentary filmmakers from  Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania with grants to complete their projects. They  also provide support and input from internationally acclaimed documentary filmmakers from the conceptual stage, right through to the production and post-production stages of our supported projects.

Submit your documentary film project and become a DOCUBOX member when you do.

The deadline for this year is October 1st 2013.

submit your applications here.

Applications for funding are currently only for projects being shot and produced within Kenya, by nationals from the specified regional countries. The films are supported in two stages:

  1. project development & trailer development
  2. production &  post-production

In the first part of the program, DOCUBOX will offer a maximum of 10 filmmakers the chance to develop their concept and make trailers, or shoot a short section of their film, supported by grants of $2,000. All participating filmmakers granted $2,000 to make these trailers and are not selected for further development by DOCUBOX, are free to use these trailers to pursue further funding or to develop the trailers into feature films, provided they credit DOCUBOX for the development grant assistance.

In the second stage of the program, a selection panel will choose the most promising projects from the completed trailers and support a maximum of 6 projects each receiving a maximum of $25,000 to complete production of their films.

 

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AfriGadget Are Hiring

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Capture2

AfriGadget are in the process of setting up a network of video journalists from across Africa to produce stories, which will be made available on the website as well. As an AfriGadget TV-correspondent your job will be to explore your local surroundings to find and capture the innovators and their AfriGadgets. If you are a videographer willing to become a correspondent for this program, or if you know of great AfriGadgets that should be considered for inclusion, please send an email to afrigadget@gmail.com.

AfriGadget is graduating from the small screens of laptops and smart phones to the larger screens of broadcast television. The production company Made in Africa TV is taking AfriGadget to the East African airwaves to inspire millions of viewers to become active creators of new and ingenious products, themselves. Made in Africa TV is an East African social enterprise producing mass media with a social impact.

afrigadget

Each episode of AfriGadget TV will consist of five thoughtful stories from around the region, highlighting remarkable and unexpected hardware innovations by East Africans. These stories are inspiring mini-documentaries, portraying young and old, men and women, as well as high and low-tech innovators and their products.

Made in Africa TV plans to produce AfriGadget as separate programs in Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan television markets. A local presenter will host the program and introduce the correspondents and their stories. Combined, these stories offer a unique opportunity to discover a wide range of innovations, new products and different approaches to the same goal. The program will be broadcast on a weekly basis.

Sundance 2013: ‘God Loves Uganda’

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god loves uganda

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In God Loves Uganda documentarian Roger Ross Williams casts a critical eye on the presence and growing influence of evangelical Christianity on the African continent. The film focuses on Uganda in particular, where local religious leaders fueled by Kansas’s International House of Prayer tirelessly work towards promoting legislation that could threaten the lives of LGBT Ugandans.

Via Shadow and Act