Women chest thump as ‘Celebrating Womanhood Film Awards’ get closer

Sarah Nsigaye, the Executive Director of the Native Voice International with Josephine Kabahumaduring the Press conference where the finalists where unveiled at serena Hotel this week

When Irene Seremba joined the Holy Images Film Company in March 2015 while still a student at YMCA, she was placed in the department of actresses. After few months, she realised that there were more opportunities in the film industry than acting which most of the girls were avoiding and she decided to learn them.

“Many of my colleagues only focused on acting. Most of them didn’t even know how to switch off the lights after the acting. Since my childhood I loved being unique. I started slowly with learning how my directors were doing their jobs and eventually I succeeded,” she says.

In 2016 her employers assigned her to be a script supervisor in a project, a job she did with all her heart and effort. “As I continued being a script supervisor and actor, I started to slowly save some money in order to come up with my own film.  In 2016 I shot some of the scenes. Unfortunately the drive that had my work got corrupted. I lost each and everything but I did not give up. I again saved until when I came up with a movie,” she says.

L-R; Robert Nkambo a film maker, Molly Nakamya who sits on the selection committee, Eleanor Nabwiso one of the nominees, Sarah Nsigaye, the ED of Native Voice International, Josephine Kabahuma and Irene Seremba (some of the nominees) during the unveiling at Serena hotel in Kampala

Her film, titled ‘The White Devil’ is among the 40 films that were nominated to compete in the 2020 Celebrating Womanhood Film Awards. She was nominated in two categories – Best Independent Producer and Best Director.

Like Seremba, there are many other women in the film industry who have put acting on the side  and ventured into technical work  including directing, script writing, editing and standing behind the Cameras.

Josephine Kabahuma, a student of Journalism and Mass Communication at Makerere University is also among the nominees for the awards. She was nominated as Best director for her film ‘Demented’. Kabahuma is an actress, a script writer, creative writer, a director, costume designer, production designer and a producer, working with Kyooto Media Group Limited in Kampala.

“Being a literature student, since my high school, I loved telling stories and I thought that I can do so through writing short stories in novels. But when I was introduced to script writing, my focus changed from novels to films,” she said “I realised that so many girls are so excited about acting and they didn’t realise that even these other departments need them. They don’t know the value of being behind the camera.” she said

Eleneanor Nabwiso (L) and Nsigaye

Kabahuma said that although it is a bit challenging to take up all these roles as a lady, she has broke the myth where men take ladies to be  a weaker sex by doing it better than some of them.

“Men take us to be weak yet we are also strong. For instance, when a lady does something great, men perceive it to be so big yet we can do some things even better than the,” she said.

Nsigaye (R), Nabwiso (C) and Molly

As a means of encouraging more and more women to join the technical roles in the film industry, the Native Voices International have this year introduced annual awards that are aimed at recognising the best outstanding women who are making a difference in the film, media and art industries during their annual Celebrating Womanhood Festival project which shall be held between 3^rd and 6^th of March under the theme: From the horse’s mouth- a woman’s Narra’.

The awards that will take place on the 6th of March at Serena hotel in Kampala will  recognise films that have been done by women and have emerged as; Best Film, Best Documentary Film and Best Animated Film.

The awards for individuals include Best Director, Best Independent Producer, Best Original Screen Play, Best Adopted Screen Play, Best Cinematographer and the Best male feminist which will be given to a  man who has  done a film that promotes women affairs.

Other categories are; Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Ugandan Film, Best Make up, Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Score, Best Song and Best TV Series.

While unveiling the nominees at Serena hotel in Kampala this week, Sarah Nsigaye Kizza, the Executive Director of the Native Voices International, said that there was need for women to take up positions and tell their own stories instead of waiting for men to tell those stories on their behalf.

“We have different ways of interpreting things and that is why we said that let women do things according to the way they see them in their own perspectives and one of the ways of doing this is providing platforms such as festivals where they can show case their films but also recognise and award them,” she said. “We as Native are building on efforts that women are doing.  Women have done a lot and we need to compliment them, award them and take charge in telling our own narratives”

Nsigaye added that, a total of 117 films were received but only 40 made it to the final because most of them were from men yet the competition is designated for only women and others lacked the required standards.

“Women have been most of the time in front of the camera; they were playing a title of pleasing men, massaging their egos and being viewed as sex objects. With this number of submissions, in the years to come, women will be dominating key positions in the film industry.”

She said that they decided to come up with these awards to encourage women to join the industry, especially in these technical positions.

The awards attracted entries from different countries including Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Benin, Tanzania, Bukinafaso Morocco, Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo, Italy and Germany.

“We have over 30 filmmakers from 21 countries coming to Uganda and they will interact with our filmmakers, speak about collaboration, and that is the essence of festivals beyond the awards,” Nsigaye said.

BELOW IS THE FINAL LIST

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