Tag Archives: Uganda

Italian Magazine Features Open Air Cinema’s Outdoor Movies in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda

by Open Air Cinema on 18. Mar, 2009 in Humanitarian, Open Air Cinema, Open Air Foundation, Outdoor Movie Events, Rwanda Cinema Center

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Outdoor Movies in Kenya, Tanzania, and UgandaIn a recent issue of the Italian magazine, D la Repubblica delle Donne, Open Air Cinema’s inflatable movie screens were featured in a special African spread. Open Air Cinema’s past work bringing outdoor movies to refugee camps in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda caught the magazine’s eye. As mentioned in the article, Open Air Cinema’s inflatable screens will be used in Rwanda’s Outdoor Film Festival, “Hillywood”. In rural regions of Africa, where a whole village shares one old TV, movies and Public Service media are rare. Open Air Cinema traveled to Africa to bring film entertainment and also educational media to these rural areas. You can read the blog post about Open Air Cinema’s outdoor movies in Africa here. The following is the article from the Italian magazine, D la Repubblica delle Donne.

Outdoor Movies in an Italian MagazineDopo i pop up store, i pop up cinema. La compagnia americana Open Air Cinema fornisce tutto l’occorrente nella formula dei “CineBox”: uno schermo gonfiabile da dodici metri, generatori, proiettori digitali, lettori dvd, altoparlanti e custodie per il trasporto. “E dal momento che possono essere installati ovunque, perché non cominciare dalle zone più remote dell’Africa, con l’aiuto delle Ong, per unire l’intrattenimento all’informazione su temi come l’Aids o i diritti delle donne”, ha pensato il presidente Stuart Farmer. “Già usati nei campi profughi di Kenya, Tanzania e Uganda, gli schermi gonfiabili saranno installati a giugno a “Hillywood”, il festival di cinema itinerante del Ruanda (openaircinema.us).

Photo of Outdoor Movies in Africa from Insert

Photo of Outdoor Movies in Africa from Insert

After the pop up store, the movies pop up. The American company Open Air Cinema provides everything you need in the form of the  “CineBox”: an inflatable screen twelve meters in dimension, generators, digital projectors, DVD players, speakers and boxes for transport. “And since they can be installed anywhere, we can take them to the most remote areas of Africa, with the help of NGOs; joining entertainment with information on topics such as AIDS or the rights of women,” he thought President Stuart Farmer. “Already in use in the refugee camps of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, inflatable screens will be installed in June at “Hillywood”, the film festival touring Rwanda (openaircinema.us).

Source: “Life e Tendenze” by Stefania Medetti -D la Repubblica della Donne. Read full (Italian) article at: http://dweb.repubblica.it/dweb/2009/02/21/lifeetendenze/lifeetendenze/058lab63458.html.

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Katine, Uganda: Outdoor Movies Shown in a Make-Shift Open Air Cinema in Katine, Uganda

by Open Air Cinema on 06. Mar, 2009 in Humanitarian, Outdoor Movie Events

Photo Credit: The Guardian

Photo Credit: Dan Chung -The Guardian

Dusk was already falling as we – a team of Guardian and Amref staff – pulled up to the Apalamio trading centre in the Ojom parish of Katine. It was still busy with people buying vegetables, bartering for goods and mending bikes. With us we had four films, a large bundle of wires and leads, a laptop, projector and screen and blind hope everything would come together on the night. Our idea was simple. Bring the Guardian’s films about Katine back home: outdoor movies in rural Uganda.

Our vision of creating an open-air cinema in the middle of a Ugandan village finally became reality last week when we screened to an audience of hundreds four of the films shot by Sara Nason for GuardianFilms about aspects of life in Katine.

Things weren’t perfect. The only speakers we had were ones that could fit in a suitcase, which left parts of the crowd straining to hear what was being said. The power supply was erratic. A crisis over a fused plug was averted by an enterprising local who simply screwed live wires into our plug-board with two small sticks, and when we finally got a picture, it was at times obscured by the slow procession of a colossal bug inching slowly across the screen.

But the roars of laughter from the crowd, the calls of approval of women during Nason’s short documentary about the perils of childbirth in Katine and the well-wishes of locals after the films had played ensured that this outdoor movie screening will be just the first of many.

Two nights later we showed the same films to an even larger crowd on the site of an old IDP camp in Tiriri, this time with hired speakers and the screen rigged up to one of our vehicles.

Over the coming months Amref plans to hold more open-air screenings of Katine films, and, hopefully, some of those shot by villagers, following training conducted last week, at different locations throughout the sub-county.

Source: “Four films and blind hope” by Annie Kelly -The Guardian. Read full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2009/mar/06/cinema-screening-report.

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Open Air Cinema Provides Inflatable Movie Screens to NGOs in Africa at Subsidized Rate

by Open Air Cinema on 21. Nov, 2008 in Humanitarian, Open Air Foundation

Outdoor Movies in Refugee Camp in Ndutu Refugee Camp in Tanzania, AfricaIn Africa, movies can be more than a night out; they can be a step up. Making and watching films can change lives and empower individuals with information and ideas.

Outdoor cinema is an ideal medium for people in many parts of Africa and is growing in its use.

To show a film, they don’t have to own the land or build a building-the screens can be set up in an open field.

A provider of large inflatable movie screens, Open Air Cinema is making it possible to provide this medium for NGOs and small business owners in Africa at a discounted rate.

With the inflatable screens, projectors, speakers, sound equipment and generators everything is completely transportable.

For example, in Rwanda, Open Air Cinema has partnered with the Rwanda Cinema Center which has a program to showcase the talent of the brilliant local filmmakers at several locations across the country.

Meanwhile, Open Air Cinema, the world leader in outdoor cinema equipment, is announcing a humanitarian effort that includes a subsidized program to provide Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and small business owners in Africa with its inflatable movie screens to show films in an outdoor environment.

The Open Air Cinema CineBox product comes equipped with everything needed to offer NGOs a portable, durable solution to distribute information, education and entertainment via outdoor movie screens.

The systems are simple enough to set up and use for small events with a few people, yet large enough to easily accommodate gatherings of several thousand people.

“With the infrastructure challenges that are common throughout Africa, we are offering NGOs an effective and enticing new medium to deliver critical information and needed entertainment,” said Stuart Farmer, president of Open Air Cinema.

“Our inflatable movie screens and systems can be made available anywhere, even in the bush, so NGOs can now deliver consistent messages-through training films about AIDS awareness or women’s rights or an entertaining movie to help elevate the morale of those in the audience.”

Inflatable movie screens from Open Air Cinema have been used by the United Nations and FilmAid in refugee camps in Kenya and Tanzania.

The screens are also used for “Hillywood,” the traveling Rwandan film festival. Movies featuring filmmakers from Rwanda and other African states are shown on the inflatable screens in seven locations over seven days.

Up to 10,000 people attend each showing. Each community has the opportunity to feature their own stories, in their own voice.

“We take our film festival to remote areas of Rwanda to bring the magic of cinema to a people who desperately need it,” said Eric Kabera, founder of the Rwanda Cinema Center.

“Many people in this region have never seen a film, and we are working to educate and inspire them and open their eyes to the world of achievable possibilities.”

“Outdoor cinema is an ideal medium for many parts of Africa,” Farmer said.

“To show a film, you don’t have to own the land, it can be in an open field.

“Everything can fit in a Land Rover including the screen, projector, speakers, a sound mixer and a generator for remote outdoor viewing.”

The Open Air Cinema subsidized program is for use by NGOs and other organizations that desire to use the cinema equipment for humanitarian efforts in Africa.

The program includes detailed training, technical support and reduced pricing for participating organizations.

To apply for the program and for more information, visit www.openaircinema.us/humanitarian.htm

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Kampala, Uganda: Outdoor Movies Shown at the Commonwealth People’s Forum

by Open Air Cinema on 16. Oct, 2008 in Outdoor Film Festivals, Outdoor Movie Events

Outdoor Movies in Kampala, UgandaIn a special open air cinema at Kawempe, Kampala, hundreds of people saw a lively mix of music, outdoor movies, acrobats, rappers, slam poetry and short and feature films, while veejays offered live translation of a Kenyan feature film, Help, into one of the local languages, Lugandan.

The video halls programme, which reached some 20 venues around Kampala between 19 and 23 November, has been put together by the Amakula Kampala Cultural Foundation and the Commonwealth Foundation as part of the culture programme of the Commonwealth People’s Forum. Viewers saw outdoor movies from Cameroon, Kenya, Pakistan and South Africa, all translated into Lugandan.

The week before the video halls programme, a mobile cinema toured out of Kampala, reaching Jinja, Iganga, Tororo, Mbale, Soroti and Lira between 8 and 14 November. Amakula also presented a daily cinema programme as part of the People’s Space from Monday 19 to Friday 23 November. In the People’s Space films from Africa and further afield were used to trigger discussions about key development issues, such as fair trade and women’s rights, led by civil society participants in the Commonwealth People’s Forum.

Video halls are a uniquely Ugandan phenomenon: cheap, accessible places where communities gather to watch films on video. Outdoor venues are becoming even more common due to the great availability of space, and outdoor movies are now very popular. Veejays – video jockeys – provide live simultaneous translation of the videos from English to local languages. Competition between veejays is fierce and the top ones attract huge followings.

Andrew Firmin, the Commonwealth Foundation’s Head of Culture and Diversity said, “This activity is taking the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to the people and highlighting a special aspect of Ugandan culture. Films are a great way of gaining glimpses into other cultures and ways of life, and they’re a big part of the cultural programme of the Commonwealth People’s Forum. We’re delighted to be working with Amakula in this programme.”

Film-making training

Participants at the 2007 Commonwealth People’s Forum were treated to the fruits of an innovative film-making training scheme that took place during the weeklong summit.

The Maisha Film Lab, a Ugandan NGO, run a training course for new film-makers. They received instruction, and were mentored and coached on aspects of film-making technique such as screen-writing, directing, cinematography, sound recording and editing.

By the end of the five day training course, they made three short films on the themes of the Forum, Realising People’s Potential, and were shown as part of the closing ceremony on Thursday 22 November. They were shown again in the film tent of the People’s Space, an open access area of the Forum, on Friday 23 November as part of the Amakula film programme.

The films addressed key development issues: women’s human rights, the status of the girl child and access to water in rural communities, using a mix of drama and documentary methods.

Commonwealth Foundation Head of Culture and Diversity Andrew Firmin commented, “This is an excellent training initiative for East African and South Asian film-makers, and it’s been great to make the connection with the Forum. The films show how a connection can be made between creative expression and hard-edged development issues.”

The programme was supported by a grant from the Commonwealth Foundation.

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