Maisha Film Lab is a Uganda-based non-profit training film initiative for emerging East African filmmakers [1] [2] [3] and mentor ship programme for aspiring filmmakers and youth in Eastern Africa. It encompasses film production, screenwriting, directing, producing, cinematography, editing, sound recording, and acting. [4]
Maisha was established in 2005 by film director Mira Nair. [5] [6] The name Maisha is from a Swahili word that means "life". Maisha aims to seek, identify, nurture, and promote creative talent among children and youth through hands-on skills development programmes in areas such as journalism, film-making, arts appreciation, and organisation and presentation of cultural and creative events.[ citation needed ]
Below is a list of distinguished Maisha Film Lab alumni: [7]
Rehema Nanfuka Kivu Ruhorahoza Joel Karekezi
Sam Ishiimwe Abdu Simba Zippy Kimundu Patience Katushabe Asaba
Mira Nair is an Indian-American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences on Indian society, whether in the economic, social or cultural spheres. Among her best known films are Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, the Golden Lion–winning Monsoon Wedding, and Salaam Bombay!, which received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.
Malia Scotch Marmo is an American screenwriter and teacher, best known for writing Lasse Hallstrom's Once Around and Steven Spielberg's Hook. Scotch Marmo also collaborated with novelist Soman Chainani in adapting The School for Good and Evil, a Netflix production directed by Paul Feig. Scotch Marmo also teaches screenwriting and, through the Sundance Institute and other organizations, mentors aspiring filmmakers.
The emerging film industry in Uganda is known as Ugawood or sometimes Kinauganda by the locals. The 2005 production Feelings Struggle directed by Ashraf Ssemwogerere is credited with being the first Ugawood film. Many have asserted that this steadily growing film industry is derived from Hollywood, in the same manner as Nollywood and Bollywood. In a story that ran in a local newspaper in Uganda about the naming of the industry, filmmakers Kuddzu Isaac, Matt Bish and Usama Mukwaya were quoted as saying that Ugawood would be the most appropriate name for the industry.
Usama "Osam" Nyanzi Mukwaya is a Ugandan screenwriter, film director, producer, actor and former television host. He is the recipient of several accolades, including nominations for an Ama Award and three Amvca Awards.
Movie Furnace (Tanuulu) is a Uganda-based non-profit short film competition, for Mariam Ndagire Film and Performing Arts Centre alumni (MNFPAC) founded by Mariam Ndagire. The program involves film production, screenwriting, directing, cinematography, editing, sound recording and acting, The winning team headed by the director wins 1000 USD.
Mariam Ndagire Film and Performing Arts Centre is a Uganda-based training film initiative for emerging filmmakers and mentorship programme for aspiring filmmakers and youth in Uganda. It encompasses film production, screenwriting, directing, producing, cinematography, editing, sound recording, and acting.
Joël Karekezi is a Rwandan screenwriter, film director and film producer. His short film The Pardon, about reconciliation after the Rwandan genocide against Tutsi in 1994, won the Golden Impala award at the Amakula Film Festival in Uganda. A feature version was made in 2011, and shown at the Göteborg International Film Festival, and later at other international film festivals including Seattle International Film Festival (2013), Chicago International Film Festival and FESPACO.
Adong Judith is a Ugandan playwright and filmmaker. She is a graduate of the arts from Makerere University, where she lectured at the Department of Performing Arts and Film. In July 2011, she was the only African writer among 10 international writers to attend the Royal Court Theatre playwrights' residency, where she developed her play Just Me, You and the Silence, which featured at the New Black Fest in October 2011. She had a public reading for the play at the Old Vic Theatre in London, in 2012. She is also an alumna of the New York acclaimed Robert Redford founded Sundance Institute Theatre Program Lab and Mira Nair's Maisha Film Lab (2008). In 2007, she was the lone Ugandan screenwriter employed on the first ever Kenyan M-Net original television drama series, The Agency. Some radio drama series titles to her name are Rock Point 256 (2005), River Yei Junction (2007) and Take My Hand (2011).
Queen of Katwe is a 2016 American biographical sports drama film directed by Mira Nair and written by William Wheeler. Starring David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong'o, and Madina Nalwanga, the film depicts the life of Phiona Mutesi, a girl living in Katwe, a slum of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. She learns to play chess and becomes a Woman Candidate Master after her victories at World Chess Olympiads.
Jayant Maru is a Kenyan filmmaker based in Uganda. He has directed films like, The Route, K3NT & KAT3, and Sipi. He has worked with Olympian Stephen Kiprotich, Miss Uganda 2014 Leah Kalanguka, and actor Patriq Nkakalukanyi.
Esteri Tebandeke is a Ugandan filmmaker, actress, dancer and visual artist. She is a graduate of the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Art at Makerere University.
Rehema is 2017 Ugandan film directed by Allan Manzi based upon a screenplay by Usama Mukwaya starring Juliet Zansaanze, Raymond Rushabiro and Ismael Ssesanga. The film premiered at the 38th Durban International Film Festival in South Africa. It held a special screening at the 4th Edition of the Euro-Uganda Film Festival on 17 June 2018 courtesy of the British Council.
Gladys Oyenbot is a Ugandan actress, singer and producer professionally known by her mononym Oyenbot. She is known for playing Dorotia on Mpeke Town (2018), and as Beatrice on the award winning drama series Yat Madit Yat Madit (2016). In 2020 she starred in numerous films including a thriller film The Girl in the Yellow Jumper, in a legal drama film Kafa Coh, Family Tree, and Down Hill. She also had starring roles in a romantic drama series Love Makanika (2015) by Dilman Dila, Reflections (2018) by Nana Kagga and 5 @Home(2017) which aired on Fox Life Africa. Her other notable screen work includes a Haunted Soul (2013), Day 256(2017), Communion(2018), King of Darkness (2015), and Kyenvu (2018) the multi award winning short film she co- produced alongside Hedwyn Kyambadde.
Maureen Nankya is a Ugandan actress who featured in Mariam Ndagire's maiden film Down This Road I Walk (2007) plus sitcom Tendo Sisters which was run on NTV Uganda, Bukedde TV and Maisha Magic. She is also a model, singer, TV presenter, fitness instructor and personal trainer at her startup called Mona Fitness.
Rehema Nanfuka is a Ugandan film, theatre and television actress, director, and filmmaker known for her roles in Imani, Veronica's Wish, Imbabazi, The Girl in the Yellow Jumper, Queen of Katwe, and Imperial Blue, among other films.
Alex Ireeta Nabudere is a Ugandan Film editor and cinematographer.
Veronica’s Wish is a Ugandan English-language drama film starring Nisha Kalema (Veronica), Housen Mushema (Michael), Malaika Nyanzi (Bankia) and Symon Base Kalema (Frank). It premiered in Uganda on 17 November 2018.
Imbabazi: The Pardon is a 2013 Rwandan film, written and directed by Joël Karekezi in his feature film debut.
Kafa Coh is a Ugandan English language legal drama directed by Gilbert K. Lukalia, produced by Doreen Mirembe at her Amani House Productions in Kampala and stars Nigerian actor Kalu Ikeagwu, Doreen Mirembe, singer, producer and actor Mariam Ndagire, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Rehema Nanfuka, Vladimir Stefanov and Oyenbot. It premiered in Kampala on October 8, 2022 and showed in cinema up to October 13 of the same year.