Stories tagged: Festivals

BY OGOVA ONDEGO. NAIROBI, KENYA (CINEMA MINIMA) — Eastern Africas premier annual international audiovisual media platform for children and youth, Lola Kenya Screen, has announced the films to compete for its 3rd Golden Mboni Award. Some 24 films out of the more than 389 submitted shall seek to outdo one another during the festival that runs August 11-16, 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya. This award has been won by Ukraine and Israel in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

For a film to make it to the official Lola Kenya Screen competition, its content must be creative, demonstrate artistic and technical mastery, speak positively to children of diverse backgrounds and cultures and should provide strong role models for both boys and girls. Additionally, the action of such a film should be child-driven, with the stories being culturally authentic, timely, and of universal appeal. Above everything else, such films should be made by, with and for children and youth rather than about children and youth.

The films competing for the 3rd Lola Kenya Screen Golden Mboni Award are:

• SUBIRA by Ravneet Chadha, Kenya
• MANPASAND/The Perfect Match by Dhvani Desai, India
• I AM ZEINAB FROM LEBANON by Salwa Saab, Lebanon
• HELLO SPRING by Masoone Jafari, Iran
• THE MAGIC TREE: DEVOURERS OF BOOKS by Andrzeej Magescka, Poland
• WORMHEAD by Manauvaskar Kublall, USA
• STI SKIA/In the Shadows by Dimitris Apostolou, Greece
• MAX’S WORDS by Galen Fott and Jerry Hunt, USA
• MIT MEINEM VATER LEBTE ICH AM MEER by Anke Lanzon and Jan Stutz, Germany
• JOURNEY OF A RED FRIDGE by Lucian Muntean and Natasa Stankovic, Serbia
• SIRI RAJA SIRI/King Siri by Somaratne Dissanayake, Sri Lanka
• GAROTO COSMICO/Cosmic Boy by Ale Abreu, Brazil
• QUAMAR/Working to Live by Preeya Nair, India
• HOPPET/Leaps and Bounds by Petter Nss, Sweden
• FORORTSUNGAR/Kids in da Hood by Ylva Gustavsson and Catti Edfeldt, Sweden
• SUDEN ARVOITUS/Mystery of the Wolf by Raimo O Niemi, Finland
• CYKELMYGGEN OG DANSEMYGGEN/A Tale of Two Mozzies by Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist Moller, Denmark
• ONNI VON SOPANEN by Johanna Vuoksenmaa, Finland
• STANDING ALONE by Gholam-Reza Ramezani, Iran
• KARLAS KABALE/Karla’s World by Charlotte Sachs Bostrup, Denmark
• PORQUE HAYCOASA QUE NUNCA SE OLVIDAN/ Because There Are Things You Never Forget, by Lucas Figueroa, Spain

Besides the official competition, Lola Kenya Screen 2008 plans to shows films in seven other categories: Films by Children, Kids for Kids Africa Competition, The Prix Jeunesse Window on the World, Eastern Africa Prism, Shorts of Africa, World Panorama, and La Matatena Associa De Cine Ninas Y Ninos. The full list of selected films is online.

All the films submitted to Lola Kenya Screen 2008, even those that did not make it to any of the eight official sections, will be available for private viewing during the festival.

The film submission to Lola Kenya Screen has for the third time demonstrated that Africa has a long way to go in the making of and promotion of films for children and youth. Only a handful of films came from Africa out of which only one made it to the 24-film official competition.

The countries continuing to register their interest in Lola Kenya Screen have increased from 39 and 46 in 2006 and 2007 to 53 in 2008.

The 2008 film submission came in from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Burkina Faso, China, Colombia, Congo-Kinshasa, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Scotland, Senegal, Serbia, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Tanzania, Uganda, USA, and Zimbabwe. [Artmatters.info]

By OGOVA ONDEGO. NAIROBI, KENYA (CINEMA MINIMA) — AFRICAN FOLK TALES ANIMATED, a compilation of three films and three songs made at 2nd Lola Kenya Screen in Nairobi in August 2007 has been selected for screening in Finland in March 2008.

The 5th annual Children’s and youth’s Videotivoli festival (2008 March 4-9) in Tampere, Finland,selected Lola Kenya Screen’s MANANI OGRES, LITTLE KNOWLEDGE IS DANGEROUS and THE WISE BRIDE from among 500 submissions they received from 35 nations around the world.

MANANI OGRES, a fascinating animation on the imporatance of vigilance, was created by Joseph Hongo, Marcus Joseph,Norick Joseph,and Samuel Musembi to show that drumming, music and dance must be employed where vigilance fails. Music, the short shows,has power on every living thing, including man-eating ogres.

Made by Samora Michelle, Adede Hawi NyOdero and Karama K Ogova, LITTLE KNOWLEDGE IS DANGEROUS, on the other hand, shows that one who tries to shock others by one’s clever-by-half antics, usually ends up frying oneself in one’s own oil. The message is passed through Mjinga, Juha, and Mwehu with the playful use on Kiswahili carrying the message across. This film won the Most Creative Project at Lola kenya Screen in 2007.

The message passed through THE WISE BRIDE is that when more than one suitor compete for a beautiful girl, only the girl’s ingenuity carries the day.This film with a twist in the tale was conceived and executed by Alexandria Ngini, Aysha Satchu, Layla Satchu and Flora Wanjiru.

First shown at the closing ceremony of Lola Kenya Screen on 2007 August 11 and also at KIFF in October 1, 2007, AFRICAN FOLK TALES were shown in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in October 2007. The compilation is scheduled for screening in Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, among other places.

FILMS BY CHILDREN FOR CHILDREN, made by participants aged 9-15 years at the inaugural Lola Kenya Screen film production workshop in 2006, not only won the Grand Prize at the 5th World Summit on Media for Chilren and Kids for Kids Africa film festival, but was screened to great acclaim in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Poland, Senegal, Tanzania, Germany, and Holland, among other places globally.

Meanwhile, preparation for the 3rd Lola Kenya Screen (2008 August 4-9),an annual international audiovisual media production workshop, festival and market that seeks to equip children and youth with skills to understand, appreciate, and create quality films and creative works to advance literacy, gender-equity, self-expression and global health, are undeway.

To this end, the presenters of Lola Kenya Screen are looking for children and youth who are knowledgeable, opinionated and interested in film, journalism, and cultural events’ presentation to apply for positions on her four programmes during the 3rd Lola Kenya Screen (2008 August 4-9).

Interested applicants may visist www.lolakenyascreen.or.ke and www.artmatters.info for details on how to be involved.