Starting January 2014, every month, the Nairobi chapter of The Awesome Foundation are giving away KES 100,000 for “awesome projects” in Nairobi. Application deadline is the second Friday of each month. The foundation describes their mission and objectives as,
…an ever-growing, worldwide network of people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe. Created in…Boston, the Foundation distributes a series of monthly $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. The money is pooled together from the coffers of ten or so self-organizing “micro-trustees” and given upfront in cash, check, or gold doubloons.
The chapters are autonomous and organized by the trustees around geographic areas or topics of interest. The Foundation provides these grants with no strings attached and claims no ownership over the projects it supports. It is, in the words of one of our trustees, a micro-genius grant for flashes of micro-brilliance.
The trustees of the Nairobi Chapter are just regular people living in Nairobi. Every month they individually contribute the equivalent of US$1000 that goes into a pot to fund a project by an individual or group or organization that has “a brilliant idea that brings awesomeness to Nairobi.” They do not charge any fees so don’t be deceived by anyone into paying anything.
Coming to Kenya for the very first time, The 48 Hour Film Project is a sleepless weekend in which you and your team have a great time making a movie. All writing, shooting, editing and scoring must be completed in just 48 hours.
On Friday night, you are assigned a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, that must be included in your movie. 48 hours later, you must submit your film. Next? Your masterpiece will show on the big screen of a local theater.
The 48 Hour Film Project’s mission is to advance filmmaking and promote filmmakers. Through its festival/competition, the Project encourages filmmakers and would-be filmmakers to get out there and make movies. The tight deadline of 48 hours puts the focus squarely on the filmmakers—emphasizing creativity and teamwork skills. While the time limit places an unusual restriction on the filmmakers, it is also liberating by putting an emphasis on “doing” instead of “talking.”
In May 2001, Mark Ruppert came up with this idea and enlisted his filmmaking partner, Liz Langston, and several other DC filmmakers to form their own teams and join him in this experiment. However, the question was, “Would films made in only 48 hours even be watchable?” Ten years later, and with more than 700 competitions having taken place around the world, the success of the project is plain to see. In 2013 the 48HFP will visit more than 120 cities where more than 60,000 people will make short films. The Project has truly spread to the four corners of the globe as filmmakers from Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas will compete to see who can make the best short film in a weekend.
The Storymoja Hay Festival is organized in collaboration with Storymoja and the Hay Festival (UK). It will be held on the 19th to 22nd September at Nairobi National Museum, Nairobi. This year, author, art historian and distinguished writer in residence at Bard College Teju Cole is also participating.
This year’s festival theme is: Imagine the World! Waza Dunia!
Founded in 2008 The Storymoja Hay Festival is a four day celebration of stories, ideas, writing and contemporary culture through storytelling, books, live discussion forums, workshops, debates, live performances, competitions, mchongoano and music. This year, there are over 60 events. The festival attracts the most exciting local and international writers and thinkers.
The Schools Programme and the Storyhippo Children’s Village offers exciting activities and sessions for children ranging from creative writing classes, dance and theatre camps, publish your own book session and fun science experiments.
Meet with the brightest thinkers from home & abroad; literature, technology, innovation, self-development, wealth creation, art and music.
Highlights | Film screenings:
The Global Seminar – Documentary Filmmaking in Kenya: The Art of Science Storytelling
Saturday 21st, 11:00, Ford Hall
Film screenings of The Matriarch, Curse of the Gazelle King, Nature’s Nurturers, Re-alignments: A Zebra’s Story, The Lost Boys of Laikipia.
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers; Muhinza Bushoki, Kevin Midigo, Loise Njagi, Maryanne Wangui Njuguna, Victor Oloo and teaching assistant Karim Kara. Presented by Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Princeton Atelier &the Program in Visual Arts of the Lewis Center for the Arts, & by the Princeton Environmental Institute
New Year’s Eve
Saturday 21st, 17:00, Discovery Hall
The Kenyan premiere screening of the Commonwealth Short Film New Year’s Eve. As a New Year’s Eve party plays out, Baraza is forced to find the courage to come clean. He risks shattering an entire way of life. Followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Wanjiru Kairu.
Highlights | Talks:
Voicing The Unspoken
Saturday 21st, 11:00, Storymoja Amphitheatre
Warsan Shire, Dr Neal Hall, Mongane Wally Serote and Njeri Wangari
Warsan Shire (Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth) won the Brunel University African Poetry Prize. Dr. Neal Hall (Nigger for Life) has won over 10 prizes for poetry in book festivals around the world. Mongane Wally Serote (Yakhal’Inkomo) has won the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize, the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa and was a Fulbright Scholar. These multiple-award-winning poets read from their work and talk to Kenyan Poet, Njeri Wangari (Mines and Mindfields) about asylum, war, love, loss, borders, insanity, race, identity and inequality.
Teju Cole in conversation with John Sibi-Okumu | Open City
Saturday 21st, 13:00, Louis Leakey Auditorium
This story of a young Nigerian-German psychiatrist in New York City five years after 9/11 was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won both the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Internationaler Literaturpreis. ‘A powerful and un-nerving inquiry into the human soul. Open City is
a profoundly original work, intellectually stimulating and possessing of a style both engaging and seductive.
– Time Magazine.
John Sibi-Okumu is a Kenyan playwright (Role Play and Minister Karibu) journalist and actor best known internationally for his role in The Constant Gardener.
The Commonwealth Writers Conversation: The Untold Story
Saturday 21st, 13:00, Ford Hall
The first in a global series of conversations invites writers, artists and thinkers to discuss the subjects and themes that are sometimes met with silence in societies around the world. This is the place to talk about how to communicate the difficult and the unsayable, whether through words or other forms of expression. Panelists include Chief Nyamweya and Keguro Macharia. Tell us on email or twitter what you’d like to discuss with the panel.
Ng’endo Mukii, Tazim Elkington, Zukiswa Wanner, Renee Mboya
The film-maker of Yellow Fever, Ng’endo Mukii chats with Tazim Elkington, Zukiswa Wanner and Renee Mboya about the shades of discrimination arising from our convoluted ideas around beauty and skin colour.
Black Identity
Sunday 22nd, 11:00, Kanga Tent
Dr Neal Hall, Mongane Wally Serote and Binyavanga Wainaina
Mongane Wally Serote was arrested by the apartheid government and spent nine months in solitary confinement. His poems explore themes of political activism, the development of black identity, and violent images of revolt and resistance. Dr. Neal Hall’s award winning book Nigger For Life, reflects his painful discovery that in ‘unspoken America’, race is the one thing by which he is first judged, by which he is first measured and against which his life and accomplishments are measured. Binyavanga Wainaina is the founding editor of Kwani? literary journal. His no-holds-barred Granta essay How to write about Africa drew wide-spread international attention. His memoir One Day, I Will Write About This Place made Oprah Winfrey’s list. In a free ranging discussion, these three powerful writers explore black male identity.
FilmAid proudly invites you to experience stories of courage, strife and human determination, as told by refugee filmmakers at the 7th edition of the FilmAid Film Festival – from 21-23rd August 2013 at Alliance Française in Nairobi.
The festival will showcase award-winning films and documentaries from refugee filmmakers studying through FilmAid’s Filmmaker Training Program. The program allows refugee filmmakers to tell their own stories of courage, hope, despair and resilience in their own voices. The selected films provide a rare opportunity for the filmmakers to share the stories of refugees who have been forced to flee their homes to escape persecution, wars, or conflict. Alongside these films, there will be a selection of international feature films complementing the work of the refugee filmmakers.
This year, the festival will present 20 short and feature films from students and foreign filmmakers. Alongside the screenings at the Alliance Française in Nairobi, the festival will also feature an award ceremony schedule to recognize the best student films, and multiple discussion panels with representatives from UNHCR, human rights groups, civil society, the film industry, government, academia and the media.
Among the films premiering at the festival, Finding Hillywood – a documentary based on the 1994 Rwanda genocide and directed by Leah Warshawski – explores how the power of film can change and heal not just individuals but entire communities. Others premiering films include, Painful Tears, Ayong, The Edge, The Good and The Bad, Shattered and Restoredamong others.
Find out more about the programme of the festival after the jump.
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
De Tu Ventana A La Mia (From Your Window To Mine) interweaves the emotions and struggles of three women of different generations aiming to build the lives they desire, their own future, love and dreams. Agnes, Violet and Luisa. Three women. Three times. Three landscapes. Three stages of life. De Tu Ventana A La Mia chronicles the experiences of three women whose destinies are woven through stories of love, fragility and strength. A portrait of the female experience from generation to generation.
Price: Free
When: 14 May 2013, 17:00
Where: Embassy of Spain,3rd Floor, CBA building, Upperhill, Nairobi
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
Ten Cities, is a global and culturally revelatory project that is documenting the social practice of going clubbing. It is the brainchild of Goethe-Institut Kenya in partnership with Adaptr and C/O Berlin. The project spans two continents, 10 countries and three disciplines (music, photography and writing).
The cities involved are Berlin, Bristol, Johannesburg, Cairo, Kiev, Lagos, Lisbon, Luanda, Nairobi and Naples. The criteria set down by the project: cities with highly developed club cultures with outstanding musicians, cities with specific local forms of music and characteristics in terms of urban development, or home to well established subcultures and subaltern public spheres and voices. About 50 DJs, producers and musicians are teamed up therefore enabling them to produce music together and exchange their knowledge about the club scenes in their countries.
The European guys are not teaching anything to the African colleagues. That would be ridiculous. The bridges are built by producing music together. The symmetrical and equal exchange is crucial here. — Johannes Hossfeld, Director of Goethe Institut Kenya
As a culture, clubbing is one of the most dynamic cultural forms worldwide with regards to space and the public sphere. It is also a space for experimenting with identities and lifestyles. Musicians today keep in touch with global pop culture viathe Internet which in turn, inspires local creativity and finds its way back into the Western world. However this Eurocentric attitude, often leads to a lack in both the appreciation of the African cultures within which all western styles of club music have their roots, and in the physical exchange between musicians and activists between the two continents. The Ten Cities project answers these concerns through a combination of music production, photography, and interdisciplinary research.
TEN CITIES Luanda – DJeff, DJSatelite, LucioAquilina, MarcoMessina
TEN CITIES Luanda – Concert Luanda
TEN CITIES Luanda – MC Sacerdote
A research project comprising of 23 researchers will use the perspective of club cultures to explore and investigate the term of the public sphere. They will work on essays and studies about those partly unknown music scenes and their sub cultures; ten photographers will capture the same on an artistic level.
At Nairobi’s iconic central station, a lithe, majestic drag queen sits on a bench, lightly crying, smoking a cigarette and descending into a breakdown through a poetic soliloquy.
A young aspiring actor (played brilliantly by Joseph K. Wairimu) from upcountry Kenya dreams of becoming an accomplished actor one day, and in pursuit of this and the chagrin of his brother and parents, he makes his way to Nairobi the city of opportunity. He quickly understands why Nairobi is nicknamed Nairrobery as he is robbed of all his money and belongings and left alone in a city where he doesn’t know a soul.
Ciné Kenya 