Ngalabi celebrates 8 years of Cinematic Goodness!

The Ngalabi Short Film Festival made eight years of cinematic goodness! Since its inception in 2017, the festival has been intrinsically committed to promoting and celebrating the short film genre as an art form in sub-Saharan Africa.

The eighth edition showcased 25 short films from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, Namibia, Reunion Island, France, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, and Portugal. The films highlighted a range of thematic areas from loss, grief, identity, friendship, cultural identity, neo-colonialism, innovation, love & loneliness, to the influencer economy effects, and immigrant experiences. 

The three-day festival opened with the Ugandan film Jangu by Patience Nitumwesiga, a thriller fantasy that centered on two sisters who are tricked by a witch to have three wishes that later lead to the harvesting of men`s souls in their town. 

This was followed by The Pizza Movie by Kevin Mukama Rushokye which had the crowd cackling with laughter as it represented a genre, comedy which Ugandans are very familiar with and use as a coping mechanism. 

Kevin Mukama Rushokye (left), Joel Tugaineyo (middle), Ali Musoke (right) during a panel session.

From then on, we moved to the UK with Dọlápọ̀ Is Fine by Ethosheia Hylton to Reunion Island with Farewell, Friends and back to Uganda with The Super Detective by Liz Karungi. 

We had a segment dedicated to animation that featured films such as Kakomando by Louis Augustine Lubega, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire-Herderboy by Raymond Malinga, which was commissioned by Disney (Uganda),  Lanyonyo: The Metal Person by Dilman Dila (Uganda), Fractured by Mary Josephine Namirembe (Uganda), and  An Ode To a Time I Loved Bread by Neema Ngelime (Tanzania/Belgium/Hungary/Portugal). 

Days two and three had films such as Miss Understood by Esther Beukes (Namibia), Two Mirrors In the Sky by Joe Francis Kiaga(Tanzania), Indigo by Mona Okulla Obua (Germany/Uganda), Le Fetiche by Samuel Mathurin Kouame Codjovi (Côte d’Ivoire), Fractured by Mary Josephine Namirembe(Uganda), From Here to There by Remmy Ryumugabe (Rwanda), Ethereality by Kantarama Gahigiri (Rwanda/Switzerland), Let`s Eat by Denzel Maniple Everd (Uganda), Influenced by Justine Wanda (Kenya), Ward`s Henna Party by Morad Mostafa (Egypt), and The Last Shoemaker by Ali Musoke (Uganda). 

Mona Okulla Obua (left) in conversation with Loic Ekinga (right)

Some of this year’s highlights included: the Kenyan-based director of Stero, Tevin Kimathi, joining us at the festival. All Ugandan filmmakers were in attendance and engaged the audience with insights from their films during the panel sessions.

For the first time ever, we screened two films from Reunion Island Sèt Lam by Vincent Fontano and Farewell, Friends by Lawrence Valin. We were honored to be the first festival in Africa to premier Cut Me If You Can by Nicolas Polixene and Sylvain Loubet from France.

Tevin Kimathi from Kenya speaking during his panel session.

We also had three first-time filmmakers debuting their films at Ngalabi such as Kevin Mukama (The Pizza Movie), Liz Karungi (The Super Detective) and Alisanyukirwa Joy Matovu (Insanity)! 

We incorporated a different moderator daily unlike last year where one individual was in charge of all the three-day panel sessions. The Friday Q & A session was hosted by Joel Tugaineyo, festival curator; Saturday, Loic Ekinga and Sunday, Consolate Namyalo. Each individual brought their personality, knowledge, and unique perception to the panel sessions.

The festival ended with a live performance from Elijah Kitaka who wowed the crowd with his hit songs, Dawa, Tutu Mama, and Nothing, among others. Later DJ Breezy serenaded the crowd with his set which had people dancing and swaying. 

Elijah Kitaka performing during the festival after party!