MultiChoice Uganda’s PR and Communications Manager Joan Ssemanda(2ndL) pose a photo with MultiChoice Talent Factory graduates Hilda Awor(L), Aaron J. Tamale(2ndR) and Cissy Nalumansi(L) at the MTF premier PHOTO BY EDDIE CHICO
Last year, MultiChoice Africa launched the continental-wide Talent Factory as a move to train young filmmakers. Consisting of 60 students across Africa, they were divided in campuses that were located in Kenya, Zambia and Nigeria; Uganda was represented by four young people who spent a year in Nairobi getting hands-on training in cinematography, writing, casting and other aspects of film. During the one-year training, the 20 students in Nairobi made two films, Ensulo and Promises.
Ensulo is a story about an imaginary kingdom that has isolated itself from modernity. The kingdom falls into a crisis when the king becomes ill, with the daughter sitting in for the father, her leadership skills are put on a test when the kingdom’s sacred water source comes under threat after a water bottling company stumbles on it. While Promises follows Mwangi, a boda-boda rider that has to adjust to life as a single father after the sudden death of his wife while giving birth to their second child. Thus, Mwangi has to meet both financial and emotional support while keeping the promises he made to their mother.
The two films, both have a strong Ugandan hand — the music, directing and writing, but since they were mostly shot in Nairoibi, there is of course a dominant Swahili culture.