Weapons of mass film production get rolling

By JOSEPH BONYO jbonyo@ke.nationmedia.comPosted Monday, February 21 2011 at 16:45

Kenyans films have taken too many baby steps to grow into a full commercial industry.

With history tracing it’s beginning to early 1960’s, the industry has faced numerous challenges from within and without.

While several big budget and internationally acclaimed films have been shot in Kenya, local players have barely scratched the surface.

“We have barely utilised the talent and content that we have locally to grow this industry. There needs to be a change in focus for us to grow to international standards,” says Information and communication PS Dr Bitange Ndemo.

However, the past five years have seen a number of players in the sector come out bare-knuckle looking for nothing short of beating their peers in Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria.

This has seen a number of productions rolled out to first endear homegrown viewers before cutting across the borders.

“The local film industry has been on a downward trend for a long time,” notes a recent survey commissioned by the Kenya Film Commission. “However, recently locally produced programmes have begun to enjoy a strong following both locally and internationally.”

According to the survey, Economic contribution of Film and TV in Kenya, there is a shift in status evident in television programmes aired by the local media stations and pay TV channels like DStv. This has exposed local content to the international market and spurred production locally.

Some of the local hits done in the recent past include; ‘Lost’ by Bobby Bresson, ‘The race’ by Mburu Kimani, ‘The stigma’ by Sheila Mulinya, ‘Malooned’ by Bob Nyanja, ‘Ras Star’ by Wanuri Kahiu and Anna Marano.

Other productions that got good ratings from local audience include ‘Dangerous Affair’ and ‘Project Daddy’ among others.

“There is a lot more that can be done in this industry if right measures are put in places. Currently some of the regulations around filming and production are a deterrence to the industry’s growth,” says Mr Peter Mutie, the chief executive officer of the Kenya Film Commission.

Mr Mutie notes that in some local government jurisdictions, filmmakers pay hefty amounts per day to shoot at a site.

An example is in Malindi where Sh100,000 is charged per day per site of a film location. In Nairobi, the City Council is said to have recently increased the charge to Sh50,000 per street per day to shoot a film.

Economically the industry brings in about Sh3 billion annually, which is three categories as either direct and indirect contribution or through ripple effects from the industry.

Some of the areas that the industry contributes to indirectly include tourism, skills and labour supply, culture and merchandising.

“What the survey revealed is that the industry has a number of sectors that it contributes to indirectly such as the hotel and food industry, transport, financial services, legal among others,” says Mr Mutie.

But then the total value of the industry is difficult to ascertain since it’s not mandatory to register a film or television production. As a result there might be a large part which is not captured in the official records.

Compared to the Nigerian movie industry, Kenya performs poorly both in terms of economic contribution and levels of production. Annually it contributes about Sh22.8 billion to the Nigerian economy.

Nollywood, as the business is known, churns out about 50 full-length features a week, making it the world’s second most prolific film industry after India’s Bollywood, according to an article in The Economist.

With its origins traced to 1992, Nollywood has cut itself a niche of producing movies for home consumption rather than for cinema halls. This might perhaps explain why the movies from the west continue to flood the Kenyan market as opposed to local productions.

“Films produced locally also suffer from a perception that they are inferior in quality compared to productions from foreign countries,” says Mr Mutie.

Although a number of locally produced films have won accolades globally, the government is yet to fully understand and support the industry.

In the 2009/2010 financial year budget, the government announced certain tax incentives to spur growth in the industry.

The full benefits of these incentives are yet to get to the industry as immigration and customs officials still harass producers out to utilise the benefits.

“These statistics will now help the government to look at how best it can partner with industry and may be even set up a film fund to promote the industry,” notes Dr Ndemo.