The helicopter and the bling are made of cardboard and the dollar bills carefully drawn on paper by local children. But the people are very real and the music is totally authentic.
A new video from Ugandan film director Isaac Nabwana is a move away from his previous output – movies heavy on blood and gore and ultra-low on budgets – which is gaining him an international cult following. And he says the pandemic’s impact in pushing film online, with the trend towards all-digital film festivals, has helped.
He calls his style “action comedy”, others have called him Uganda’s Quentin Tarantino, but his films have attracted so much attention that fans from around the world visit his Kampala studio and pay to appear as extras, mostly to be killed, in his movies. “We give them a part,” he says, “we have killed more than 200 people that way. We had people come from Switzerland on their honeymoon to take part, they just wanted to die in a movie and they were happy.”
In a poor country without state support for the arts, and where films that manage to get made suffer cripplingly from piracy, the move online for Nabwana’s film company, Wakaliwood, in lockdown is an acceleration of where films are going anyway, he says. “DVDs are gone, film festivals are all online now, it helps us grow internationally and helps combat [the] piracy problem, which was so bad with DVDs.
“This film industry in Uganda is so young, we are self-taught, so we need to promote it with young people, teach them the skills, and also engage them to be the audience of the future. In 10 years we will have a proper industry and a stable audience.”
Nabwana’s new parody rap video, for a crowdfunding appeal by a community in Bulambuli, eastern Uganda, hit hard by the consequences of Covid-19 lockdown, is a unique fundraiser.
In Money Makes Money, local entrepreneurs set out to convince the world to invest in them by “faking it”, taking a light-hearted dig at bling-bling culture and the notion that entrepreneurs only exist in global finance hubs.
Nabwana says that Wakaliwood, named after his home Kampala district of Wakaliga, is not trying to mimic anyone, but is forging its own path. “Wakaliwood is its own village, it is not representing Uganda, or anywhere else, it is international.
“This was fun to do. I wanted to help – and humour, jokes and sharing is very much what Ugandans are about. We smile, we work together. Doing the video was a great team: my wife was doing the makeup, my children were helping with making the banknotes, everyone knew what to do.
“I normally do other sort of stuff, but we are now in a state of sadness, we are in a lockdown and that has changed everything.”
Uganda has suffered badly from the pandemic, especially in education, Nabwana says. “The schools are all shut and many, many young people are saying they will not go back to education even if and when they open again. This is the biggest worry, education is the backbone for any country.
“If there is any chance to help I want to do it, I’ve seen life there, in rural Uganda, and it’s not good,” says Nabwana.
“I encourage everyone to watch this video and to donate to this community, they can do amazing things.”
Featuring vocals in English, Luganda and Lugisu from rappers Byg Ben Sukuya, MC Yallah and Jora MC, the Money Makes Money campaign aims to raise £30,000 through online crowdfunding. The money will be used to create five new local businesses, support 10 existing ones and get financial education and support to an additional 250 entrepreneurs. The project was created in partnership with a charity empowering Ugandan communities to “leverage their own skills” through savings groups, training and financial support.
“The Money Makes Money campaign is a perfect example of how much harder villages in regions like Bulambuli have to work in order to get the investment they need,” says Pilar Tejón from Communities for Development, who helped with the project.
“Especially against the backdrop of a global pandemic. We wanted to work with the local talent on this project in order to help get the word out, and highlight a village that shouldn’t have to fake it in order to make it.”
