"East Africa can stand up to Nigerians" – Octopizzo

On his way to Kampala, many of his fans in Kenya kept their ears on the ground to pick what their boy would tell the media.
He was one of the performers at the just concluded We Love YoUganda Festival that took place on Saturday.
And while talking to The Observer after his energetic performance, the rapper went through a number of issues that involved African music, Kenya and charity.
He noted that performing at We Love YoUganda was a big deal for him since he believed in the cause they are pushing for – creating positive change by providing safe Water for all people. In fact, in the line of positive change, Octopizzo is a youth ambassador for UNHCR and last year launched the Octopizzo foundation whose mission is to support young people who exist on the margins of the society.
“The foundation aims to nature young people in the areas of sports, theater, music and lots of other fields,” he said.

However while talking about music, he noted that he loves what Ugandan artistes are doing; “unlike Kenya that lacks an identity, Ugandan artistes have something that their audience easily relates with.”
He adds that in Kenya, almost everyone is doing what interests them; “I can do rock or Jazz, we don’t have that sound you can call Kenyan” though, he also notes that much as a common sound is easily loved by the local audience, it may also be the problem that has hindered Ugandans from crossing borders.
Much as this was his first performance in Kampala, the artiste who like his co festival headliner Bobi Wine hails from the slums of Kibera noted that he was already in talks to work with different Ugandan artistes; “I have a song with Lillian Mbabazi, Something for you, and I’ve already worked with Sheena also an exciting upcoming Ugandan act.”
In fact, he wants to take Sheena under his stewardship to see her become a big East African act sometime.
Last month, Octopizzo celebrated making eight years in the Kenyan music industry and is mostly looking at crossover success for the next eight years and building a legacy; “When you look at the commercial music scene in Kenya, people produce music that rots in months, I want to make music that won’t fade.”
On whether East African music’s existence is threatened by the popularity of the Nigerian sound which is being sampled by many artistes, he notes that it won’t be easy for Nigerians to wipe the East African region clean; “Right now their only advantage is the clean production that obviously beats ours,” he says adding, “If Bobi Wine, Bebe Cool and Chameleone can package their music for a bigger market, we can send Nigerians back home.”
Octopizzo, is quite known for making blunt statements; earlier this year, he called Kenyan hip hop dead that people always have to wait for him to drop something in order to counter attack, though all this was happening almost a month after belittling Kenya’s Bingwa Music Awards for giving the Come Back of the Year Award.
He noted that he has not been out of music and has not stopped touring and releasing new material thus, he’s not making a comeback when he has been around, and instead, he suggested the award should have correctly gone to Wahu.

City Remixing photo exhibition appreciates Kampala

Rumanzi  Canon's picture of the High Court

Rumanzi Canon’s photography at the ongoing City Remixing photo exhibition at the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts Makerere University is quite a sight.
It’s mostly that place where new media and technology meets creativity; most of his pieces on display can easily pass for an editing manipulation, Photoshop or all those gimmicks that have been presented by a laptop in the right hands.
But Rumanzi’s creations are merely art and imagination, timing and a play with the exposure, he zooms out of what the historical photographs show, making places into planets, expanding framed views in panoramic images, shooting, as he calls them ‘Holes in the world’.
City Remixing presents photographs made of and in Kampala through time, as seen by 5 different photographers. It shows and wants to make us think about progress and development of Kampala, and the possibilities and limitations of photographic visualizations of urban environments at large.
In Rumanzi, it’s mostly experimental playing around with as many setting to discover new things, more presenting the same city we’ve grown up in a different point of view.
Dr. A.T. Schofield was a missionary and physician who worked under the Church Missionary Society in Uganda during the first half of the 20th century. An amateur photographer, he documented Kampala, events and places based on his social surroundings and interests.
Schofield took pictures of such iconic structures like Namirembe Cathedral, Rubaga Cathedral and Barclays Bank among other places.
According to a press release, part of Schofield’s photographic legacy has been donated to the Africana section of the main library of Makerere University and digitized by History in Progress (HIP) Uganda, also the organizers of the City Remixing exhibition.
Eng. M.W. Wambwa, an engineer with a soft spot for photography and journalism, he documented Kampala in the pre-independence days.
Elsadig Mohamed from Sudan, is a photographer and filmmaker, his photos in the exhibition have a shifted focus, at times blurred and hard to tell.
Luuk van den Berg a Dutch student at Minerva Academy in Groningen was invited to re-photograph some of the historical images.
The exhibition is one of the activities that lead to the launch of the fifth volume in the Ebifananyi book series, developed and designed by Andrea Stultiens.
Stultiens is a researcher, photographer and educator from the Netherlands, a co-founder of HIPUganda, she has been working in Uganda since 2007, trying to understand and relate to a culture far from the one she grew up in.

Queen of Katwe first look is mind blowing

For many Ugandans that make Hollywood their own business, Queen of Katwe is that one movie they are indeed looking out for; for starters, it’s a real life adoption of Phiona Mutesi, a teenager from Katwe that took the chess world by storm.
During the just concluded Amakula International Film Festival, the director of Queen of Katwe, Mira Nair held a discussion with film enthusiasts and film makers, it was an interactive session that was meant to inspire as well as uplift anyone with a dream of telling stories using the lens.
Citing the films she has worked on like Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding and Kamasutra among others, she noted that the best way she worked on many of the projects successfully was because she organized and sorted out all that had to be sorted out in time.
Born in Rourkela, Odisha in India, Nair always had an eye for storytelling, in fact she used drive to the city to listen to a story teller; “The idea of bringing people together without props or cameras but just your story was fascinating.”
However, the most exciting part, which was totally a surprise of the interaction, was when Nair said, she had something for us and those were fifteen minutes in form of a scene from Queen of Katwe staring Madina Nalwanga, Lupita Nyongo and David Oyelowo.
The scene starts off in the market where an annoyed Phiona (Nalwanga) seated alongside Harriet Mutesi (Nyongo) are watching her brother dance to a Luganda rap song.
In walks a rather descent but lousily dressed Robert Katende (Oyelowo), the director of Sports Outreach Kampala and Phiona and the brother’s chess coach.
He was pleading with Harriet to let Phiona and her young brother go for a national chess tournament that was taking place at Kings College Buddo.
It sets us to a number of beautiful shots including one of Katende bargaining with Harriet to let him take the kids particularly set with in piles of wood and a view of Lake Victoria in the background.
It is surprising how Luganda adlibs easily go off the two’s tongues especially with Oyelowo’s Katende using our normal begging tone and terms like ‘nawe’ or ‘nyabo’ in his speech.
Lupita too had mastered Harriet and her few years at Maisha Film Lab, owned by Nair herself could have paid off as she spoke with that uncertainty many of us possess while speaking a foreign language.
Nair says that the market was met to be done in the Katwe market but opted for Ggaba since it had beautiful scenery of the lake and as well provided the artistic feel she was looking for.
In fact, the wood pilled was supposed to be bought by different city wood distributors but noting that it would create a great shot, the production had to buy and make sure it stays put for the two days the scene was shot.
But the real star of the scene could have been the two year old baby, one Ivan Jacob. According to Nair, he was cast because he was seen crossing the road by himself; but more to that – “I cast him because he looked like the brother of Phiona and easily looked like he could be Lupita’s child.”
In fact before production, Lupita used to visit him over the weekends and that’s how he got used to his onscreen family.
“Ivan obviously had no lines in the film but he kept creating his own lines and he brought the house down with them,” she says.
In this scene, when Katende walks off with Phiona and her brother, Ivan’s character looks at them leaving and mummers; “ehh bandesewo.”
Unfortunately, during production, Ivan’s mother ran off to Dubai and now leaves with Nalwanga her onscreen sister.
According to Tim Crothers’ book, Queen of Katwe, which the film heavily adopts, it had been hard for Katende to secure a slot for the Outreach children to participate in the tournament since many officials at Kings College thought slum kids would come with a lot of issues – especially diseases.
It plays out, at least in the fifteen minutes especially when a chess teacher portrayed by former news anchor Peter Odeke, informs those around that they had underprivileged children in their midst.
The attitude in this scene is one many Ugandans that have been to school easily associate with, either as the victim of such treatment or the one dishing the treatment – it was like those kind of schools competition where kids from high end schools come to deliberately under look their less privileged colleagues.
After the screening, much as they were only fifteen minutes, the director got a standing ovation, as some people were fighting back tears.
She promised they will have a special screening in Uganda when the film premiers in September.
And following the backlash of the so white Oscars, Entertainment Weekly, E! Online, Independent UK, LA Times and many other publications have already tipped Queen of Katwe to be a strong contender at the 2017 Oscars.
In fact, even Disney is positioning it as an Academy possible shot since it has each and everything Hollywood has been criticized for ignoring in the past; they have a female director from India, making her a person of color, a three black people in the lead roles, Nalwanga, Nyongo and Oyelowo.
In fact, among the individual awards that maybe up for grabs next year, the Independent UK tips Nalwanga as the new comer to watch citing that she may easily emulate her onscreen mother Nyongo who too won an Oscar as a newcomer.

Amakula relishes memories with first drive in cinema in years

You can’t forget the first time you were at the cinema. Well maybe you can forget the clothes you were putting on but definitely not the film you watched.
But I guess that only works for people that looked at cinema going as some kind of privilege, the ones that elevated you from your ordinary peers at school.
Then, there were no pirates in town thus, the only way you could have watched Titanic, Good Will Hunting or Men In Black only weeks after their official release was at the then William Street based Cineplex Cinema.
My first time was when Rush Hour, the first one from the series was making waves; I barely knew I was even watching a blockbuster considering the fact that the cinema hall was virtually empty.
On Wednesday, at the Uganda Museum, Amakula International Film Festival created yet another cinematic memory for many young film lovers with the very first drive in showcase Uganda has seen in many years.
It’s said that in the 1960s, the Cinema culture was at its peak and drive ins were some sort of the ish – but thanks to our scratched past, none of these cultures even still exist. The years of turmoil before 1986 have since ensured that cinemas are almost in-existent and the few that were opened way later after stability are now struggling to attract a paltry one hundred audience.
Thus, getting into the Bala Bala Sese, the film that opened Amakula, the festival was faced with more than a problem, getting people come back to the cinemas and more so the already dead drive ins and getting them sit through 102 minutes of a locally produced film.
But it wasn’t just the drive in that was crazy, for people without cars, the same movie was screening at the museum hall but unlike the traditional seats and screen kind of setting, they opted for mats and only a few seats.
The festival was making a comeback after going into a hiatus for almost four years, it’s been said that much of the show woes came from a fact that they lacked funds and thus couldn’t carry on for the tenth edition, and it was in the new hands of Bayimba Foundation, Goethe Zentrum and Kampala Film School.
In fact, much as this was the tenth edition of the festival, Bayimba Foundation’s Faisal Kiwewa and the curator of this Amakula noted that this was basically their first and they had a lot to learn.
To make sure the festival can sustain itself, they had to make people pay as opposed to the previous editions where it was absolutely free. 
Alice Smits, the first director and curator of the festival noted that handing over the festival to Bayimba Foundation has been a process that started in 2013. She says that they believe the festival is in the right hands considering the fact that the foundation already runs a unique multidisciplinary showcase.
This year, Amakula was putting their emphasis on distribution and thus two international distribution companies DIFFA (Distribution Internationale de Films et Fictions d'Afrique) and Aya based in France and United Kingdom respectively.
But it was the drive in that many people were very interested in, you could see that many were thrilled by the idea of sitting in their cars with headsets whose sound they could control to levels that suited them.
Adnad Senkumba’s prowess is best appreciated while watching this film with the sound projected in HD via the headsets, you could experience each and every detail of the sound including the little ants that helped create an ideal feel of a night in a village.
It could have been a drive in designed for people with cars, but the crowd at the festival opening wanted none of that, in fact, many of the people that had to sit in the main hall were seen coming with their mats to watch from the Museum gardens.
Some sat on their friends car bonnets and enjoyed both Bala Bala Sese and the cool breeze that was availed by the good weather of the day.
Even the fact that one would easily remove the headsets and receive a call without inconveniencing the people around was just magnificent.
Flora Aduk, an arts editor with the Daily Monitor noted that such drive ins reminded her of those old movies where people used to go to drive ins during outings – she said that she enjoyed watching the film with the breeze hitting her face.
Others liked a fact that they could walk about to the toilet but could still follow the audio part of the film.
Bala Bala Sese was massively appreciated by the audience at the Amakula tenth edition debut and they commended Bashir Lukyamuzi the director and Usama Mukwaya for telling a story that many Ugandans can easily relate and emmerse in.
The festival was graced by Hollywood actor and film maker Ntare Mbaho Mwine and Queen of Katwe director Mira Nair among others.

Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion brings dinner theatre to Kampala

Pygmalion which had its Ugandan premiere at Copper Chimney Restaurant Lugogo over the weekend was one of the most successful works of then promising screenwriter, George Bernard Shaw.
He thought comedy was at its best when ideas were allowed to collide in the service of public enlightenment.
Written in 1912, Pygmalion came at the time Shaw wasn’t at the best of relations with the British media, he argued that whenever he released a play, they would tell the public that it wasn’t actually a play but blasphemy, dull and financially unpopular art.
Which was the main reason that Pygmalion was performed in Vienna and Berlin first before being staged in Britain two years later; On Thursday, theatre lovers in Uganda got a chance to marvel at the Shaw genius when the production about Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins was reenacted by the Kampala Amateur Dramatics Society (KADS) in what was termed as a dinner theatre.
Dinner theatre is a means of making the art more enjoyable, entertaining people as they are having a meal and thus achieving the factor of nourishing both the body and mind – not the conventional kind of theatre but totally acceptable.
In the play, Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a member of the British upper class by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech.
It’s the kind of play you can summarize in the straightest way possible, Higgins vowed to make Eliza an affluent citizen of the British upper class and he achieved it. But what matters, is how he did it and the fun that happens on the way.
We get introduced to all these exciting characters besides Eliza and her zeal for knowledge, Colonel Pickering, who had come to England seeking the great Higgins.
The best fun of the show was the irruption of Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle, dustman, one of the undeserving poor who explained his wholly immoral views of life and morality. He wanted money and in his dialogue, he noted that he lived by ‘touching’ people.
Dollittle was willing to leave his daughter behind with Higgins who he well knew was a bachelor, yes, his motives were money driven.
 KADS take on the Shaw classic is interesting, the director Tom Adlam notes that he took a number of liberties with this production; “First, the play has been substantially abridged from its original form in order to reduce stage time to about 90 minutes.”
In order to provide a clear separation between the four acts, each act has a short prologue in the form of an interview by a journalist (Douglas Sebamala, who played himself) with the playwright (Arfaan Ahmed).
The cast did a tremendous job in giving the production a life, Adlam was convincing as Higgins and so was Steve Brown as Alfred Doolittle, but the cast had a good day generally even when some part of the Ugandan cast seemed to be slow especially with some of the jokes.
KADS produces a wide range of plays and musicals in Uganda, in the past they’ve worked on classics like Much Ado About Nothing, Watchdog and Grease among others. They mostly work with professionals that have an eye for arts even when it’s not what they do as their fulltime job.

Kampala Amakula, Uganda’s oldest film festival is back

For a number of years, Amakula International Film Festival (AIFF) was the sole Ugandan festival and one of the biggest in the East African region.
However, due to issues beyond the management, they had to pull the plug on the festival before it celebrated its tenth birthday.
This week, the festival will make its way back to the social calendar with an epic tenth edition that is slated for the 16th-20th at the Uganda Museum.
For those five days, film lovers will experience probably the country’s modern day era drive in cinema where both in competition and out of competition films from Uganda, Africa and the rest of the world will be screened.
The return edition is curated by Bayimba Cultural Foundation’s Faisal Kiwewa, Caroline Christgau of Geothe Zentrum, Arlen Dilsizian of Kampala Film School with content advice from Maisha Film Lab’s Fibby Kiora.
Talking to The Observer, Christgau noted the purpose of AIFF is to get Ugandans appreciate films done by both Ugandans and African creatives with a vision of connecting the industry to others industries.
Some of the films to screen during the festival include Oscar nominated Timbuktu, highly successful Malawi film B’ella, Bala Bala Sese and Dar Noir among others.
Timbuktu is a 2014 French-Mauritanian drama film directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. On release in 2014, it was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or the main competition section at the Cannes Film Festival. 
It went on to win the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the François Chalais Prize. It was later nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, and has been nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language at the 69th British Academy Film Awards.
The film looks at the brief occupation of Timbuktu, Mali by Ansar Dine. Parts of the film are influenced by a 2012 public stoning of an unmarried couple in Aguelhok.
But Timbuktu is not in competition for the Golden Impala Award, Best International Feature Film but Bashir Lukyamuzi’s Bala Bala Sese, Hamadi Mwapachu’s Dar Noir, Tawanga Taddja Nkhonjera’s B’ella and Nadya by Shams Bhanji.
Bala Bala Sese, is one of the films representing Uganda at the Luxor Film Festival in Egypt later this year and was one of the best reviewed Ugandan films in 2015 with Polly Kamukama noting that the film was relevant because of its topic but didn’t try to be an activist kind of art. 
The picture that stars famous couple Michael Kasaija and Natasha Sinayobye, shows a botfriend’s battle for love through perseverance.
Other awards up for grabs are Best International Documentary and Best East Africa Short Film.
According to Kiwewa, AIFF aims at contributing to a vibrant local film industry by broadening access at contributing to a vibrant local film industry by broadening access to developing audiences.
Entrance will be shs50,000/= for a full festival pass.

Bobi Wine releases Situka as Tubonga Nawe boycott bites

Bobi Wine could be the most desirable artiste at the moment. Since he released Ndi Muna Uganda to counter an All Star Tubonga Nawe, he has been looked at as a politically right youth that cares for the issues many locals care about.
In Ndi Muna Uganda, he seemed to answer Bebe Cool’s charges that Bobi is a local artiste whose music never crosses the border, in fact, on a verse the song he hits out at the former and Chameleone for striving to impress two foreigners forgetting the millions of Ugandans that have made them what they are.
He would later follow that up with a poorly sought after but lyrically right Dembe which called upon Ugandans to go and vote but remain peaceful. Much as the song was deemed as pro-opposition, many thought it was an ordinary song simply making a relevant communication, but nevertheless, Dembe was bad art.
Today, Bobi is riding on yet another politically charged single Situka. The song seems to address the situation that followed the election after results were released – frustrated faces and lost hope.
He seems to channel his emotions towards Ugandans that supported different candidates and lost telling them that they should pick themselves up and walk rather than give up.
The songs is indeed telling Ugandans that change is in their hands, thus, much as they have not emmerged victors, they should stand up to the injustices because no one will do it for them now that even the candidates they had invested their hopes in too have their hopes in the masses.
The song that is heavily blended in a reggae feel has Bobi Wine deliver like he rarely does, he’s articulate, poetic, and emotional though still calling on Ugandans to give up waiting for institutions but rather play their own part.
Earlier before its release, Bobi had shared a rather well-crafted post on social media, in the long write up, the artiste seemed to put himself in the position of the former FDC presidential candidate noting that; “When the going gets tough, the tough must get going, especially when our Leaders‬ have become ‪Misleaders‬ and ‪ Mentors‬ have become ‪Tormentors‬. When freedom of expression is met with suppression and oppression, then ‪Opposition‬ becomes ‪Our Position‬.”‬‬‬‬‬
That post forms the introduction of Situka and many jusic fans have described it as punchy and driving the message home.
The series of songs are Bobi Wine’s redemption after he was accused of backing Jennifer Musisi only a year after criticizing her ways.
But it’s not just Bobi Wine basking in glory after an election, Mathias Walukagga who was prominent on Amama Mbabazi’s campaign trail has too since released Referee, a song where he seems to note that the election ground only favored a player other than all.
However, even when Bobi Wine is on the roll, things may be getting worse or already at the worst for artistes that were part of the Tubonga Nawe project, that’s if the backlash they are getting on social media is anything to go by.
Bebe Cool has since announced that he will be holding his Life of Bebe Cool on 5 August at Serena Hotel but has been meant with insults. Showing a change in goal posts, unlike the pre-general election times where he would exchange with fans, this time he literally takes a back seat and lets the abuse settle in.
In fact, Bebe has since changed his social media posting pattern, these days he goes for more than five days without littering stuff on the web and unconfirmed reports from the Gagamel Phamily indicate that for the first time in many years, the artist may not host his annual Easter Monday East African Carnival that usually takes place in Kiwatule.
Haruna Mubiru and Radio and Weasel have already tasted the medicine of annoyed Ugandans, apparently, the diaspora society has kept their word and indeed boycotted their Februarys shows in London and Dubai.
While appearing on Dembe FM’s Talk and Talk show, Frank Gashumba noted that artistes did no wrong in taking the ruling party’s money to do a song for the campaign, but simply had to sing and move on; “But if you go as far as branding your car with stickers, going on social media to argue with fans, then you’re out of the line.”
On whether Ugandans have what it takes to boycott shows that are happening, one radio presenter that requested anonymity says that much of the boycott talk is driven by emotions, but fans will attend once the storm is over.
Though many argue that laying low for long may make them irrelevant especially in an industry where showing face and multiple releases keep you afloat.
For those that had shows flopping in the diaspora, he says that they were ill advised about having concerts amidst a crisis, in his view, artists can lay low until all this passes; “Ugandans easily forget and let things go under the rug, if any of the Tubonga Nawe artistes opts for August, they will make their money.”
He also notes that the boycott activism is rampart on social media which people barely pay for concerts but the downtown people that usually support out of their love for the artiste.
So where does this leave Bebe Cool with his shs100,000/= concert in August?
“He will have the corporates if he decides to have as many complimentary tickets,” he says adding that very few Ugandans will be willing to part with such money thus the show will have people but many won’t pay a coin.
As Gashumba puts it, artistes are like cultural leaders, much as they have the freedom to support, they put themselves in a tight spot when they rally support than they were expected to.
“These people have supporters that backed NRM, FDC, DP and other parties thus they should be calculative,” he noted.

Genevieve's Road to Yesterday is a misguided run

There was a lot of excitement leading to the release of Ishaya Bako’s Road to Yesterday, this was the director’s first feature and another fact, that lead actress Genevieve Nnaji too was making her debut as a producer.
The film was also coming almost two or more years of the actress’ absence from the African film circuit, thus the coming back wasn’t only meant to be described by the term bang but an epic bomb.
Did you even see the poster? Nnaji and her co-star with their backs facing each other and none of them even tried to be sexy – prophesied doom but not bad enough to involve weapons, just woman or man not talking to the other party.
It’s the kind of poster that reminds of all the lame romantic movies your sisters made you watch because they had the remote – Two Can Play That Game and its clan mates. 
Road to Yesterday, which finally premiered on Africa Magic Showcase, well has way too many things going on around it; in more than one way it proves that Nnaji could as well be Nigeria’s most talented female, successfully goes nowhere though still managed to win an Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Award (AMVCA) for Best Film West Africa.
The film is about a couple experiencing problems that embarks to a road trip for a burial but then turns out to be one they could easily use for discovery.
Mostly told in flashbacks – in fact almost 90% is told in flashbacks, the film shows us a vulnerable couple trying to understand what went wrong, why their house went silent or why they’ve become roommates than lovers of late.
Nnaji writes a relevant story and indeed using a road trip as the basis of the story was brilliant. And revealing many of the reasons for their distance on the journey was a smart way of describing our human nature, we may keep quiet for long but we shall always talk the moment we are pressed to.
But that wasn’t all, the film manages to keep it as real, especially with that scene where the house girl apologizes for letting their daughter witness her parents trying to go down on the kitchen floor after a drunken night out – guess it’s typical of all couples with maids.
British/Nigerian actor Oris Erhuerho potrays Nnaji’s disgruntled husband who has stopped trusting the wife after finding out that their daughter isn’t his – he blames her for it though later getting to learn that he was the cause of the lustful night that saw the daughter conceived elsewhere.
In summary, Road to Yesterday has a lot of potential, in fact, it has everything it takes to be a world class short film but for a feature, it’s just as basic, it drags to the moment you will plead with the pay TV provider to terminate your account.
For instance, at the beginning, much of the dialogue is lazy and useless, it neither guides nor carries the story forward, in fact, it’s after that bizarre decision to go on a road trip that the film starts to have some motion but again, we are usually let down by that repetition in the dialogue….ouush it becomes painful.
Then much as the cast was great, only Nnaji seemed to have brought her ‘A’ game along with her to the set, others like Majid Michael or Erhuerho were obviously absent.
For most of the film, you could think Erhuerho was acting for himself and cared less about his surroundings, his emotion delivery failed terribly to match that of his co – actor who unfortunately was stuck in shots with him. As a result, it became a case of bad ruins good every five seconds.
Then comedian Chigurl, (I learnt about this one from MI’s Monkey) – well, if there was an irrelevant cast, it was definitely this person. She was supposed to be the pivotal person that introduced Nnaji’s Victoria to Majid’s…whatever he was, and from him, Erhuerho’s Izu got to meet Victoria. All this happened in less than five minutes, but Chigurl’s presence was not felt, neither in comic relief or influence, if they told you that she was the soda in the bottles, you will just believe that because you will be trying as hard to fit her somewhere.
The ending is though the most beautiful part of the film – not that we badly wanted to see it out but that twist that took us from the hotel to the hospital, then replaying the actual tragic night was both emotional and creative.
Regardless of the short comings, Road to Yesterday is still a strong movie and force in both Nigerian and African film industries especially with the technical prowess of sound, editing and production design. 

Dry, a film about underage marriages rules the 2016 AMVCAs

#AMVCAsoNaija should have been the in house hashtag leading into the just concluded Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.
Not that all the other countries had been shunned, but because we are kind of used to the Nigerian thing at everything fronted as African.
But it wasn’t the case, yes, the show was in Nigeria and they led the nominations table considering the fact that they had almost three categories they were sure of winning in Best Igbo, Yoruba and West African film.
Unlike the past years, the organizers had done their best to be more inclusive nominating films from South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda and of course Nigeria among others.
This obviously meant that the winners’ list was rather diverse and to help promote the diversity, as if they were avoiding a similar backlash that befell them last year, pundits asking them to make the show a Nigerian Film Award where they invite Africa as witnesses.
The Ayanda, a South African drama about a hipster trying to revive her late father’s car garage won numerous awards and so did Dry, a film about underage marriages.
Malawi picked their very first AMVCA gong thanks to Joyce Mhango Chavula’s Lilongwe. While accepting her award, Mhango noted that the nomination and now the award is a special moment for the country’s budding film industry.
Uganda for the first time had more to hope for, House Arrest was a three time nominee in the Best East African Film, Best Lighting Design and Best African Film Overall for House Arrest, however, the film directed by Joseph Sebagala lost all these awards to other people.
Not even Call 112, which was in the same East African category, could beat Kitendewalli.
Dry, aptly the most relevant film of the night won the Best African Film Overall, it was rather hard predicting this since the competition was tight between the Best Director recipient Tell Me a Sweet Something and multiple award winning and global trotting Ayanda.
The award show was also lightened by Ugandan comedian Salvado who we must agree is so good at raising at the occasion.

The 4th Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards that were held at the Eko Hotels in Lagos, Nigeria lived up to everything they were billed to be and more!

There was stunning fashion, top-notch presenters, thrilling performances and of course big winners for the night! Have a look at who walked away with a prestigious AMVCA award this year:

BEST TELEVISION SERIES

WINNER: ARIYIKE OLADIPO – DADDY’S GIRLS



BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY (MOVIE/TV SERIES)     

WINNER: FOLARIN FALANA – JENIFA’S DIARY



BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA (MOVIE/TV SERIES) 

WINNER: DANIEL K. DANIEL – A SOLDIER’S STORY



BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY (MOVIE/TV SERIES)  

WINNER: FUNKE AKINDELE – JENIFA’S DIARY



BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA (MOVIE/TV SERIES) 

WINNER: ADESUA ETOMI – FALLING



BEST MOVIE – SOUTHERN AFRICA 

WINNER: JOYCE MHANGO CHAVULA – LILONGWE



BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR    

WINNER: SAMBASSA NZERIBE – A SOLDIER’S STORY



BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (MOVIE/TV SERIES)   

WINNER: TUNBOSUN AIYEDIHIN – BEFORE 30



BEST SHORTFILM OR ONLINE VIDEO 

WINNER: OLUSEYI AMUWA – A DAY WITH DEATH



BEST INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE MOVIE/TV SERIES – YORUBA 

WINNER: ABIODUN JIMOH AND JUMOKE ODETOLA – BINTA OFEGE



BEST MOVIE – WEST AFRICA (DRAMA/COMEDY)

WINNER: CHINNY ONWUGBENU, GENVIEVE NNAJI, CHICHI NWOKO – ROAD TO YESTERDAY



BEST INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE MOVIE/TV SERIES- IGBO

WINNER: PAUL IGWE – USEKWU IGBO



BEST INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE MOVIE/TV SERIES – HAUSA

WINNER: SALISU BALARABE – DADIN KOWA



BEST INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE MOVIE/TV SERIES – SWAHILI  

WINNER: SINGLE MTAMBALIKE – KITENDAWALI



BEST MOVIE – EAST AFRICA

WINNER: ELIZABETH MICHAEL – MAPENZI



BEST OVERALL MOVE

WINNER: STEPHANIE LINUS – DRY



BEST WRITER OF A MOVIE / TV SERIES

WINNER: TRISH MALONE – AYANDA



BEST COSTUME

WINNER: UCHE NANCY – DRY



BEST MAKEUP

WINNER: LOUIZA CAROLE – AYANDA



BEST LIGHTING

WINNER: STANLEY OHIKHUARE – COMMON MAN



BEST DIRECTOR

WINNER: AKIN OMOTOSHO – TELL ME SWEET SOMETHING



BEST PICTURE EDITOR

WINNER: SHIRLEY FRIMPONG – MANSO



BEST DOCUMENTARY

WINNER: REMI VAUGHAN – RICHARDS



BEST ART DIRECTOR (MOVIE/TV SERIES)

WINNER: FRANK RAJA ARASE – THE REFUGEES



BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER

WINNER: PAUL MICHAELSON – TELL ME SOMETHING



BEST SOUND EDITOR (MOVIE/TV SERIES)

WINNER: MARQUEX JOSE GUILLERMO – DRY

Amid political tension, Vagina Monologues succesfully showcase in Uganda

The very first time someone attempted to produce a show called Vagina Monologues, they were meant with a lot of resistance from the authorities.
That was 2005, the production was meant to be showcased at the National Theatre and Information Minister Nsaba Buturo said the play had been deemed offensive and vulgar and thus would corrupt public morals if performed in Uganda.
“As government, we have agreed that this play should not be staged in the country because the language used is offensive, vulgar and not according to the country’s culture,” he told Mail & Guardian in 2005.
While all political and executive arms of our government went to slumber after winning an election, when all the necessary offices were fatigued, the Vagina Monologues somehow found their way back to our dusty streets last week at Gothe Zentrum.
Apparently, every year, Eve Ensler, the author gives anyone in the world rights to reproduce the monologues for free, as long as their proceedings go to an organization that benefits women.
The weekend shows were benefitting Mifumi, an international non-government women rights organization whose work revolves around protection of women and children experiencing violence and other forms of abuse.
And literally, that’s what the Vagina Monologues is based on several hundred interviews with women around the world. It celebrates female sexuality and focuses on the abuses women in different relationships suffer.
Ensler wrote the Vagina Monologues in the 1990s, though, through the times they’ve been performed in over 140 countries and more than 50 languages over the years, they’ve been retouched to fit the different societies, countries and era, for instance, while it was being performed last week, among some of the names listed for a woman’s anatomy were some Luganda lingual our parents never let us say as well as some coined ones from Katwe or Kalerwe like Desire Luzinda, wiwi, Kandahar and Ka Nyabo among others.
It’s not the kind of play that you will get excited about because it barely runs like the traditional productions you and I may be used to – in fact, it’s merely activism, mostly feminism, explaining what it means to be a modern woman – the inequalities where they will be labeled sluts for wearing something short and revealing, an inequality where many women’s sexual satisfaction has to be sacrificed so as to please men.
But the Vagina Monologues, even when all the things they said about the production eleven years ago were aptly not right, it’s not an easy production to stomach especially in an African setting – yes, saying vagina is probably not vulgar but saying or listening to it being said over sixty times in a space of two hours is not the most comfortable thing.
Or, that troubling intro that had a group of women standing onstage and professing their love for their…you know what.
But the rest of the show is valid that you will question why the show was banned in the first place – it merely looks at a number of issues like rape, hygiene, child birth and hair among others, of course its hair down there.
Of course as the production goes on, at some point it ceases to be a play but turns into a crusade of women rights and how they must be treated right – it’s a change from the norm especially in Uganda where theatre is into more romantic dramas than social issues.