The NEST is holding auditions for male and female dancers to feature in upcoming video productions. They are looking for are energetic dancers who are able to express character and emotion. All styles welcome.
Auditions will be held on Saturday 3rd August, 2013 at the NEST from 10am – 5pm.
Register (free) and fill out the form (llink below) with your contact details and a link to a video of you dancing (if you have one).
Applicants must be 18 years and older to apply.
Date: Saturday, August 3rd 2013
Venue: at the NEST
Time: from 10am – 5pm.
Register (free) here
Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o was born in Mexico, raised in Kenya and educated in the USA. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama’s Acting program and her stage credits include playing Perdita in The Winter’s Tale (Yale Repertory Theater), Sonya in Uncle Vanya, Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, as well as being in the original production of Michael Mitnick‘s Elijah.
In 2009, Nyong’o released her moving documentary In My Genes. It is a documentary that tells the plight of people living with Albinism in Kenya. The film follows 8 people and reveals their struggle in coping with a condition that is rarely understood by most people in Kenya; but equally celebrates their resilience through stigmatisation that is no fault of their own. The film preceded the murders of albino people in Tanzania that put this issue on the global map thus placing this concern squarely in view of a global audience. It is filmed and produced by Lupita. View the trailer below:
78 min | Colour | High Definition | 4:3
Kenya, 2009
Status: Released
Language: Swahili, English
Subtitles: English
The synposis is as follows:
Agnes may not seem like someone with much to laugh about. For one thing, she has albinism– a lack of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes– and her appearance has provoked prejudice from family, friends and strangers since she was born. But despite all odds, Agnes refuses to lead a life of sorrow.
This fascinating and inspiring documentary also shares the stories of seven other people’s individual experiences of living their lives with albinism in Kenya, a predominantly black society. While each person’s story is unique, they all have one thing in common: they know what it is like to stand out uncomfortably in a crowd!
During the same year, Lupita was also the lead in MTV’s award-winning TV drama series, Shuga (2009) commisioned by MTV Networks Africa in association with MTV Staying Alive Foundation, PEPFAR (US President’s Emergency Fund for Aids Relief) and the Government of Kenya. It aired on MTV Base and is an initiative dubbed MTV Staying Alive Ignite! It is a controversial hard-hitting drama that followed the lives, loves and ambitions of a group of young people whose bright lives and futures are perilously out of balance due to their love of living dangerously.
A film by Frances Bodomo
12 min | B&W | High Definition | NTSC |16:9
USA, 2013
Status: In post-production
Afronauts is a pre-thesis film by talented filmmaker Frances Bodomo which Ciné Kenya previously featured here.
Since then, several casting choices were announced. Stunning model/actress Diandra Forrest (you can see her in Kanye West’s ‘Power‘ music video) will be playing Matha and prolific actress/director Yolonda Ross (HBO’s Treme,Yelling to the Skyand her own film Breaking Night) is playing Auntie Sunday. We are also pleased to announce Bodomo’s Kickstarter campaign has also achieved its fund-raising goal days before its deadline. The teaser trailer above released recently, features the haunting Elvis Presley rendition of ‘Blue Moon’.
Diandra Forrest
Yolonda Ross
The film tells an alternative history of the 1960s Space Race; it’s July 16th 1969 the night of the moon landing. The project is based on a true story. The dreams of space travel led science school teacher Edward Makuka Nkoloso to found a National Space Academy of Science, Space Research, and Astronomical Research in an old farmhouse outside of Lusaka. As America prepares to send Apollo 11 to the moon, a rag-tag group of exiles in the Zambian desert are trying to beat America to the same destination. There’s only one problem: their spacegirl, Matha, is five months pregnant. Afronauts follows characters that have not been able to find a home on earth and are therefore attracted to the promise of the space race.
Ciné Kenya 