By Emmanuel Mwendwa

The fourth edition of the Lola Kenya Screen audio-visual media festival closed Wednesday. The event featured a series of interactive activities, which brought under one roof youthful, budding and established filmmakers.

Among the festival’s highlights was a three-day conference whose participants included independent television, film, video producers drawn from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern DRC, Southern Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.

Participants receive tips on shooting movies at the workshop. Photo: Emmanuel Mwendwa/Standard

This forum sought to discuss and explore viable policies that can be implemented with an aim of transforming the East African regional audio-visual media sector into a sustainable industry.

More significantly, the festival provided a platform during which film experts facilitated hands-on, practical, learn-as-you-do mentorship and self-development programs tailored for children and the youth.

A series of workshops held at Goethe-Institut’s auditorium exposed young, enthusiastic participants to rudimentary film making insights and tips. These included Film Production with Children facilitated by Spain’s Fina Sensada-Boixader and Television Drama for Children and Youth with Adult Filmmakers coordinated by Anette Tony Hansen of Denmark.

This year, the festival’s theme was The Circle. Over 200 films from 50 countries and in 33 languages were exhibited over six days, celebrating creative film-making for children, youth and family.

The award-winning movie From A Whisper by Wanuri Kahiu, Pamelaby produced by James Kanja and Docs for Today & Tomorrow represented Kenya at the screenings.

Some titles of films showcased such as The Magic Stamp, For A Fistful of Snow, The Happy Duckling, A Beautiful Tragedy, Dear Mom, A Crack in the Wall, Babalwa’s Story and Small Boy were a pointer to the festival’s target audience — young people.

Many movies such as The Little Knight, War and Peas, Ernst Goes Skating, The Tinderbox and Kirikou and The Sorceress had Kiswahili sub-titles.

Films by students proved to be an eye-opener especially for young participants. Maryam Bayani’s film The Pottery’s Tale, Elephants by Sally Pearce, Omar Hamilton’s Eyes on the Prize, 4 Kilometres by Miri Shapiro, Ejim Fortune Kezi’s Per Second Killer and Pums by Federico Martin were some of the films in this category.

Other categories featured at festival included World Panorama, Kids For Kids Africa Festival Competition, Films by Youth, Eastern Africa Prism, Television Series and Special Focus.

Other films screened were from USA, Latvia, South Africa, Italy, Denmark, Iran, Cameroon, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Namibia, Canada, Mexico, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Norway, Nigeria, the UK, Burkina Faso, Taiwan, Zimbabwe, Israel and Poland.