By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 13 May for 14 May 2019)
This year’s
28th edition of the European Film Festival (EFF) is proving to be unprecedented
for its quality and quantity as well as its diversity, variety and inclusion of
Kenyan as well as international films.
In all,
there are 57 films being shown throughout the month of May. The Festival opened
on May 4th and is running every day through May 27th. The
films are being shown at twelve locations, including two community cultural
centres and featuring films from three Kenyan film festivals.
Thanks to
the curatorial design of Nyambura Waruinga, this year’s EFF aims to be more
accessible to local audiences than ever before. This is partly because films are
being shown at many more venues than ever before. (For previous years, films
were only shown at Alliance Francaise. But back then, EFF, like the European
Union itself, was much smaller and had fewer films to share.)
They are
also being screened in several local venues such as the Dagoz Art Bar in
Dagoretti, the Huipalas Rooftop Hub in Korogocho and Maasai Mbili in Kibera. At
the same time, they are also being shown in various venues in and around the
CBD, including Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institute, Kenya National Theatre and
Nairobi National Museum as well as The Alchemist in Westlands, Michael Joseph
Centre in Safaricom, the August 7th Memorial Park near the Railways
and Creative Garage. And this year for the first time, EFF films are also being
screened at two IMAX cinemas, one in Diamond Plaza, the other at Kenya Cinema.
All the
screenings are free of charge. And this year, there will be far more
participation by Kenyan filmmakers, including those coming from Machawood, Slum
Film Festival, Lake International Pan African Film Festival and Kenya
Scriptwriters Guild.
Local
filmmakers are showing films like The Cut, Kidnapped, Kati Kati and 18 Hours as
well a wide range of locally-produced film shorts and animations. What’s more,
both local and a few international filmmakers will be involved in panel discussions,
workshops and master classes being conducted throughout the festival.
The European
films are also wide-ranging in their scope and variety. The genres we are
having a chance to see range from thriller, drama and comedy to documentary,
virtual reality and historically-based films to animation and film shorts.
When the
European Film Festival began back in the early 1990s, the films came primarily
from European Union countries which were relatively few at the time. But 28
years later, the EU itself has grown by leaps and bounds.
Not all 28
EU countries are being represented cinematically this year, although most of
them are. What’s more, several non-EU countries are taking part, including
Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, and Ukraine.
The Festival
is offering a rare opportunity to get an insider’s perspective on each of the
countries – and Kenyan counties – being represented. For example, it will be
fascinating to see what’s an Austrian filmmaker’s idea of ‘The Best of All
Worlds’ or what an Irish director has created ‘In the Name of Peace.’ The
French thriller, ‘The Corporation’ also sounds excellent as do Kenyan films
like Jim Chuchu’s ‘Let this be a Warning’ and Samuel Karanja’s film short
‘Chocolate City’.
This year,
one should try to see as much of the Festival as possible. It has many
award-winning films that are also quite new. However, it won’t be that easy
since the screenings are spread out across the city, and given the traffic in
Nairobi, one will have to give one’s self extra time if you’re heading to a venue
that is new to you. But at least one can
try to explore sides of the Nairobi that you may have never been to before.
One only
wished that this year’s EFF film schedule had been widely circulated before or
at least on the day the festival opened. Better still, that all the films and
their locations had been placed as posters in several strategic public sites as
well as on several social media platforms. As of now, I could only find the
schedule on Facebook where there is one link labeled ‘catalogue’. But one is
better than none. https://issuu.com/eudelken/docs/eff_catalogue?fbclid=IwAR1fS2QZERTyzg0LhvO1Ay4UTq_WTYKiJFmt9GjYQOKJzqDO4mQcx5wNRYs.
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