Category: Movies

Movies, News

US Online course jumpstarts Kenyan film-making

By Margaetta wa Gacheru

Interest in film-making has exploded among young Kenyans, hundreds of whom responded to the call that went out from an international film team called “Stories Found” in mid-2018.

The team was offering aspiring young filmmakers a chance to take an online documentary film-making course run by Atlanta-based filmmakers Bud Simpson and James Martin. Kenyans selected for the course would then take part in making a film short or two that highlighted elements of contemporary Kenyan culture.

“More than 300 Kenyans applied to take the course,” says Evie Maina, the former anchorwoman of local TV shows like KBC’s Art-itude and Arts and Culture as well as KTN’s Artistic Thursday.

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Festivals, Movies

Watch out Hollywood, Nollywood is coming to town for a festival of African film

By Jeffery Fleishman

In the early days of Nigerian cinema, directors and actors wandered cities and tribal lands shooting movies straight to VHS tapes that were sold in kiosks and bartered in villages.

Those times of on-the-fly editing and pocket-change financing have since grown into one of the largest film industries in the world, a quicksilver business that is as attuned to juju priests as it is to the love affairs and nightclubs of the new rich.

The reach of what is known as Nollywood often strikes Kemi Adetiba, one of its most acclaimed directors, when she’s in Jamaica or New York. A taxi driver will invariably say, “Oh, God, I love Nigerian films” while waxing on about how those stories connect him to ancestors who centuries before had been uprooted from Africa by slavery and colonialism.

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Movies

7 Nigerians putting Nollywood on the world map

The movie industry in Nigeria (Nollywood) has come a long way from catering to just its local audience.
These days, Nigerian movies are gradually going global and being appreciated in various parts of the globe.

After spreading around Africa through the Africa Magic Channels of Multichoice, Nigerian movies are beginning to find their way to global platforms like Netflix.

The artists helping this global push are spotlighted in this report by Pulse.com

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Movies

Nigerian actress, Amanda Ebeye, shoots directorial debut in Canada

Nigerian actress, Amanda Ebeye, recently visited Canada where she went to shoot her first movie, a short film titled, “Horrors”.

The movie marked her directorial debut and is centred on single mothers.

On her experience while filming in Canada, Ebeye said,

“It was actually amazing filming a movie in Canada. Canadians are about the nicest people in the world. And just like Nigerians, they are very welcoming to filmmakers.”

“It was a beautiful experience, from the owners of the locations we used, to the cast and crew, and onlookers that cheered us on.”

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Movies, News

Djimon Hounsou set to play Congolese Nobel Peace Laureate in new film

By Mildred Europa Taylor

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Oscar-nominated actor, Djimon Hounsou, will kickstart shooting the much-anticipated biopic ‘Panzi’ this summer.

The Beninese-American actor and model who is best known for his Oscar-nominated performance in “Blood Diamond,” is set to portray the role of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Denis Mukwege, in the film “Panzi”.

The film will be directed by actress-turned-director Marie-Helene Roux, Variety reports.

Mukwege was jointly awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize with Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad for “their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”

Image result for Djimon Hounsou and denis mukwege
Denis Mukwege. Pic credit: mediacongo.net

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Business, Movies

Netflix increases production of African films

When Godwin Jabangwe stood in front of a room full of Hollywood movie executives to pitch his first feature film last November, he knew his idea wasn’t exactly the stuff of a conventional blockbuster.

He wanted to make an animated movie called “Tunga,” he explained, about a young girl who travels to a mythical lost city on a quest to save her village from drought. It would be set in Zimbabwe. Oh right, and it would be a musical.

“Five years ago, with an idea like that, you would have been laughed out of the room,” Mr. Jabangwe says. But his idea immediately caught the ear of a big production company, and last month, after a scrappy bidding war, Jabangwe signed a deal with them. “Tunga” is going to be a Netflix original.

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Achievements, Movies

Netflix Buys Nigerian Film LIONHEART
Nigerian actress Genevieve Nnaji scored a major breakthrough for herself and the popular Nigerian firm industry called Nollywoood when Netflix, the American streaming giant announced that they had purchased  the worldwide rights to Nnaji’s  movie, Lionheart, during the Toronto film festival.

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