Wakaliwood: The Cinematic Dream of a Uganda Slum

Wakaliga, a slum in Kampala with about 2,000 inhabitants, is home to a young booming Ugandan cinema industry known as "Wakaliwood", the Ugandan Hollywood.

Here, low-budget films are produced by using everyday household items, such as frying pans, and PVC pipes as mock rocket launchers, and condoms filled with red dye for exploding squibs.

Wakaliwood was started in 2005 by idea Isaac Nabwana, a young man who had grown up during the brutal regime of Idi Amin, who, from 1971 to 1979, presided over the killing of 100,000 to 500,000 Ugandans.

Nabwana always felt strongly attracted to Western films, which he had never actually watched but only knew by his brother's passionate descriptions.

Wakaliwood compound is in one of the lowest and most flood-prone areas of Wakaliga. Nabwana built the main home himself, using bricks he baked by hand.

Nabwana and his wife, Harriet, share the bedroom with their three young children, and in-laws and tenants dwell in the remaining rooms. There is no running water and power cuts are frequent.

Beyond the home, the compound also features a rehearsal space, a recording studio, four back rooms for tenants, and a small shack that sells scrap metal.

At the beginning of this adventure Nabwana began to produce and shoot music videos but in 2009, he decided he could no longer wait to make his first action film.

In 2011, a director who goes by the name Mr. Hofmanis, an American expat, launched a crowdfunding campaign for Nabwana's film "Ebola", which reached $13,000. A true fortune, from which he was able to buy generators, projectors and hard drives.

The budget for producing a new film is $200; the cast is made up of relatives, friends and neighbours, and props are made of DIY materials.

The actors are not paid, but receive a margin on the DVDs proceeds and can count on a roof over their heads; the rehearsal room, in fact, which during the day is in used for practicing film dialogues, and at night is filled with sleeping bags.

Among the residents there are Kazibwe Ronald Aka General Placdo, Isaac's assistant, Mustafar Kasekende (Mustafar Lee), kung-fu trainer for children, Zaina Nakasaba, 21, actress, and Kizza Manisuru Ssejjemba, kung-fu master.

Another important actor of the caravan is Dauda Bisaso, the architect of props. He builds weapons used in war scenes out of PVC pipes and pieces of metal taken from landfills.

Isaac's dream brought about a remarkable film industry in the country, where in 2008 only two or three production companies were active. Today there are more than 500 in Uganda.

Mustafar Kasekende (Mustafar Lee), 38, kung-fu trainer for children from 7 to 13, who want to play a role in the Wakaliwood films. At the moment 13 children attend his lessons. He is an actor too, and he is the main character in the last Nabwana's film, Bruce U. STEFANO SCHIRATO/AL JAZEERA

Gertrude Nabachwa, 63, Isaac's mother in law, spreads clothes to dry on the fake helicopter built in the courtyard. The props-master Bisaso Dauda, a supporting column of the team, made the fake helicopter in the 'studios' courtyard. Dauda is the architect of props: with pipes and pieces of metal taken in landfillsmake the most unlikely weapons. A few meters from the set Bisaso has a tiny workshop where he manages to create a similar AK-47. STEFANO SCHIRATO/AL JAZEERA

During the shooting of Bruce U, last Nabwana's film. Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey (IGG) produces, directs, shoots, writes, and edits action films from his home in the slums of Wakaliga, Uganda.A self-taught filmmaker, he began his activity at 32, just after the birth of his first child. While supporting himself and his family as a school teacher, IGG founded Ramon Film Productions (the name is derived from his grandmothers, Rachel and Monica, who raised him and saw the family safely thru Uganda's civil war). Based in the small home he shares with his wife and co-editor, Harriet, and their three children. RFP has produced over 44 feature films since 2005 (as of Jan 2015) and is best-known for Who Killed Captain Alex: Uganda First Action-packed Movie and Tebaatusasula. Trailers for IGG's work have gone viral, but the films themselves remain largely unseen outside the slums surrounding Kampala, Uganda.

Works Cited

____________________________________________________________________

Schirato, Stefano. “Wakaliwood: The Cinematic Dream of a Uganda Slum.” | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 5 Mar. 2018, www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/wakaliwood-cinematic-dream-uganda-slum-180305080922395.html.

Response

____________________________________________________________________

I think that the audience of this article is businessmen and women in the west. This is because these businessmen and women are probably the most likely people to appreciate the entrepreneurship of the man who started the film business in Uganda. It must have been incredibly difficult to start a film business from scratch and it is impressive the lengths that he has come.

I think that the author of this article is biased towards the man who headed up this film business because they like his guts to go out on a limb like that and it makes for a more interesting story if they can get the reader to emotionally respond with him.

Personally, I think that it is really exciting that this man has been able to make such progress in his own life. It is so hard for those who are living in the slums to get hope because they cannot see a path out, but if someone is willing to work hard it is possible to overcome the poverty all around. I think that while this particular story doesn't necessarily have an international impact, the underlying message does. We should support those who are in slums and have hope that they will be able to progress because they can succeed.