Kenya's 'Kahawa Black,' Uganda's 'Big three' set for SA's Durban FilmMart
Sunday May 28 2023
Juliana Kabua, who is the producer of the Kenyan film 'Kahawa Black'. PHOTO | COURTESY
Films from Kenya and Uganda are among the 28 projects that have been selected to be part of the four-day 2023 Durban FilmMart that begins on July 21 under the theme: African Constellations.
Kahawa Black (Kenya) and Big Tree (Uganda) join other feature length films at the festival.
Kahawa Black (Black Coffee) is about Kana Wamba, who in her 20s is the owner of a home-based catering business that has clients from all over Nairobi. She has a huge following on social media, and she is in the final stages of publishing her first cookbook.
Kana has a difficult relationship with her father, George Wamba and when he dies, she misses his funeral. Later, she goes back to her hometown in Central Kenya with the intention to sell his farm to expand her business and rid of her father’s memory. She discovers that the title deed to the farm is missing.
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It is produced by Juliana Kabua and directed by Esteri Tebandeke.
Big Tree revolves around a young woman called Anena, who uses technology — which she calls Yat Madit —to foster democracy.
The technology enables thousands of people to be joint-presidents, hundreds to form committees to replace ministers, and every citizen to be a parliamentarian. Citizens are eager to adopt Yat Madit, but Anena can’t celebrate this success because her mother goes missing. She suspects her father killed her and hid the body.
Flavia Mary Bukojja is the producer of the movie, while Dilman Dila is the director.
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The other fiction features are Coconut (South Africa); Every Stitch a Lonely Thread (South Africa); Graft (Zimbabwe); Granny Lee (South Africa); Nomvelo and the Wolf (South Africa) and Pharming (South Africa).
The documentary feature films include: Cirta (Tunisia) Djeliya, Memory of Manding (Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Sénégal); Eaglette - A Superstar Erased (South Africa); Flying Like a Bird (Morocco).The other documentary feature films are Foreign (Ivory Coast); In My Father’s House (Morocco), The Circuit (Cameroon) and Wildfire (South Africa).
The documentary series are “Beyond Fela (formerly The Darker Side of Afrobeats)” (Nigeria).