It is said that before war socially disrupted Ugandan’s ways of living, Kampala had become East Africa’s leisure capital city.
Of course we can’t claim it is not now, but the fighting that happened in the early 1980s, left a lot of the livelihood in tatters.
For instance, today, cinema going is only making a comeback with Century Cinemax, Magic Cinema and Nu Metro among others, yet in the ‘cool’ 80s, drive in cinemas were a thing.
This week at the Uganda Museum, Kampala Amakula International Film Festival organised by Bayimba Foundation will be bringing the retro drive-in experience.
The festival known as the oldest film celebration in Uganda starts on Wednesday with a number of film workshops and master classes at Kampala Film School in Ggaba.
It is at Ggaba that documentaries and short films will be screened on 14 and 15 which will be free to the general public.
It is the programme at the Uganda Museum on 16 and 17 that will be programmed for a drive-in experience – the programme will also host panel discussions about marketing films and another one about regulations.
Faisal Kiwewa
The selections of films according to festival director Polly Kamukama ranges from a number of genres from countries like South Korea, USA, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and of course Uganda among others.
The festival that has in the past given out an award to the most outstanding African film in the competition for the past ten editions will continue the tradition just that this time a documentary and student film category have been added on the award list.
This brings the competition awards to four including Best Feature Film and Best Documentary which are open to African films, Best Short Film, which is open to East African short films and Best Student Film which is only open to Ugandan students of film.
Mathew Nabwiso, a film maker whose film Rain is in competition for the Golden Impala Award for Best Feature Film, noted that he is happy the festival is here though he hopes the drive-in experience doesn’t stop with the festival.
