LUPITA’S SHARED DIARY FROM RWANDAN FILM FESTIVAL

Jaques Rutabingwa (RFF's Tech Director), Lupita Nyong'o (IN MY GENES) & Joseph Kinuthia Kamau (JITU FILMS)


: Musarait Kashmiri (Director of MAISHA FILM LAB, Uganda), Meddy Saleh (Cinematographer), Lupita Nyong'o (IN MY GENES), Ayuub Kasasa (Hillywood Coordinator) and Daddy Ruhorahoza (Rwandan Filmmaker)


View of Kigali from Cine Star, one of the festival's screening venues


Lupita and Alex take motos to town, popular local transportation


Alex Konstantaras (JITU FILMS) and Joseph Kinuthia Kamau (JITU FILMS)

Filmmakers Lupita Nyongo and Alex Konstantaras have written an account of their experiences at the Hillywood Rwanda Film Festival, which ran from June 18 to 20, in a lengthy email.
OPENING CEREMONY

The opening ceremony took place at the Serena Hotel on the eve of the 18th of June. This red carpet event attracted an exclusive list of invited guests, including local celebrities, filmmakers, and other local and international stakeholders and of course, the media. Although there wasn’t a strict dress code, the traditional Rwandese outfits that most of the guests opted for, stole the show and gave the event a unique character. The Guest of Honour, Hon. Joseph Habineza, the Minister of Sports and Culture officially launched the festival with a short, heartfelt and inspiring speech of how the government should actively support local filmmaking because it has the power to transform and develop a nation’s culture – something Kenyan leaders should learn from!

The opening night featured four short films by Rwanda Film Institute students. An animated audience received these enthusiastically. Surprisingly, all the short films were directed by females! The shorts were followed by the main opening film, Karim Chrobog’s, WAR CHILD, about the life of Emmanuel Jal, a former Sudanese child soldier who grew up to fight for peace in his nation through his sensational hip hop career. The film that runs 97 minutes seemed too long for an opening ceremony and yet it managed to captivate the audience of about 400 people, and by the vigorous round of applause at the end of it, I would say it was a success. The star of the film, Emmanuel Jal was supposed to be present and perform that night but due to some undisclosed complications, he was visibly missing in action. Nevertheless the crowd enjoyed local Rwandese live performances under the moonlight and the influence of wine.

DAY 1

Friday 19th June. With 16 films to see and 5 venues to choose from, we set out for Cine Star, a quaint movie theatre in the heart of Nyamirambo, to watch a few short films before witnessing the Rwandese audience’s reaction to MOB DOC, the first Jitu Film to be screened at the festival. First up were two short Spanish films, SINTONIA and EL TREN DE LA BRUJA, both of which struck us for their simple concepts made exceptional by the way the stories were crafted. SINTONIA, for one was a typical love story about two strangers that meet under odd circumstances and cannot resist their mutual attraction, but what made it special is the way the two met: listening to the same radio show while waiting in traffic. EL TREN DE LA BRUJA is a horror short about torture, set in one room with one actor. We both commented that these films proved that it was more about the strength of the story than the amount of money used to execute it.

As the sun set over the hills, we headed out to Shokola Café, where the evening’s films would be screened in the open air. MOB DOC was the highlight of the night, screening last after a few short unimpressive films. MOB DOC seemed to take the audience by surprise with its dark and sometimes controversial humour, but what really surprised the audience was the appearance in the flesh of the MOB BOSS himself, Joseph Kinuthia Kamau. Eric Kabera, the festival’s founder and CEO and an all-time fan of Kinuthia’s work, conducted a brief discussion with him about the movie and the Kenyan film industry after the screening. MOB DOC set the pace for the rest of Jitu Films’ screenings at the festival with a bunch of East Africans asking for copies of the films.

WEEKEND HEAT – SCARY SATO

Weekends are the best festival times anywhere in the world. The locals are at rest from a week’s work and the tourists too pour in to the city in search of culture, adventure and a good party. The festival packed in 46 screenings to cover the weekend demands, with Jitu’s OTTO, THE BLOOD BATH, the horror banned in Kenya, being the Saturday night main attraction. Everyone was so curious to see this infamous film said to be “too horrific” even for an adult audience. After the screening, Eric Kabera, remarked that he was glad that the film was screened in the open air rather than in the confines of a dark cinema because it made it easier to bear. Before OTTO a short Kenyan/Ugandan film by Paul Ekuru, DANCE FOR WIVES was screened. This film about a dead-end love affair features an impressive cast, with David Mulwa, Mumbi Kaigwa, Melvin Alusa and Karen Lucas (a.k.a. Kaz) playing the lead roles. Despite the A-list actors, the DANCE FOR WIVES employs full English dialogue in a film set partially in a slum, which makes the story weaker.

After a jam-packed day of screenings, we set off to explore the Saturday nightlife of Kigali. Our first stop was Republika, a popular bar with a spacious balcony where we sat to throw down a few with other festival enthusiasts and the owner of the bar, a fellow Kenyan. Next stop was KBC – Kigali Business Centre, a building complex with two contrasting club scenes. We stood between the blaring sound of techno from one club and hip-hop from the other. Naturally and without an argument we chose club number two. We wasted no time and hit the dance floor with the locals. Alex bust some Greek moves, putting lakeside Lupita to shame.

SAUNA SUNDAY

Sunday was a day of relaxation to the point that even the Internet service at our motel took a break. Frustrated we sought for some form of relief. We dragged ourselves to the afternoon screenings in Cine Star, which included Jitu Films’ R2 SECURITY. The local audience appeared to enjoy the film despite the fact that they were not as familiar with the story of the real Artur Brothers that inspired the film. Shamelessly we decided to skip the evening’s screenings to try out Kigali’s little known sauna culture. We hopped onto two of the hundreds of motos (motorbike taxi or pikipiki) to join fellow filmmaker Patrick Mureithi at a sauna near our motel. How surprising to find the sauna packed with men and women of varying ages in a unisex sauna room! Until then, we had thought that such a thing only existed in far off liberal countries like Sweden and Finland. For less than 500 Ksh, we had the full sauna experience, including a full body scrub by a diligent and highly skilled man.

After 2 hours of paradise and full relaxation, we could barely walk back to our motel ten minutes away. Some of us didn’t see our rooms until the next morning… That’s the RFF effect!