While other countries have registered success in the movie arena, Uganda has continued to lag behind.
Demonstrating the art of make-up during the festival. PHOTO/Mubiru Kakebe
Given the many talents Ugandan artistes in their
respective fields possess, no one has come up to tap the immense talent
and the few who have tried have been deterred by factors that arise as a
reason of no support from the government yet the movie industry can be
turned into a multi-billion dollar industry to create more jobs for the
country’s citizens and one can say, revenue for the government.
A reason the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has launched a festival dubbed the Uganda Film Festival.
To develop the local movie industry by promoting, protecting, marketing and supporting local actors and producers’ craft.
The launch was staged at the Serena Hotel on Monday and has been going on for the whole week.
It had the Minister of Information and National
Guidance, Mary Karoro Okurut, as the guest of honour, and Abbey Mukiibi,
a celebrated local actor, as the M.C. of the night.
The biggest highlight of the day apart from the
cocktails was Michel Ouma. Though armed with just a guitar, he managed
to thrill the crowd by just plucking and playing away on the strings of
the guitar.
According to the chief organizer Isaac Mulindwa,
there were movie exhibitions at the National Theatre where producers
showcased their craft to movie lovers for sale. There were also public
movie screenings at no cost from Tuesday to Thursday in the Mukono taxi
park, Natete Taxi Park and the Old Taxi Park respectively.
At the 2013 Uganda Film Festival at the National Theatre. PHOTO/Mubiru Kakebe
Movie screenings at Cineplex, Garden City and the
Hub, Oasis Mall took place from 9:00am to 8:00pm, free for all the
lovers and supporters of the local Music industry.
There were training workshops on sound, lighting,
scriptwriting, censorship, classification, copyright, financing and
challenges the movie industry of Uganda is facing.
Isaac Mulindwa says it was aimed at exploiting the
local talent and transforming the local movies into international
material to help sustain the industry as a sector and the people in it.
To wrap up the festival will be the Movie awards on Friday 30th august at Serena hotel. Categories
include: Best Short Film, Best Animated Film, Best Cinematography, Best
Feature Film, Best Sound, Best Screen play, Film of the year, and the
Best Student film.
Nominated movies include The Route, Abhor, King’s
Virgin, and State Research Bureau, among others. The judges were Sister
Dominic Dipio, Associate Professor of literature and film at Makerere
University; Rosie Montene, a specialist in dance, choreography and
theatre; Madu Chikwendu, a Nigerian director and scriptwriter, and Suzan
Nilsson, a seasoned documentary producer from Sweden.
By
Solomon Muleyi
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