Have you ever seen a movie and thought, “Hey, I could do that!” but then went home on your merry way and forgot about the next day. Well, not Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey. And if you don’t know who Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey is, be prepared, ’cause he’s about to be your new favorite director. Well, at least for today.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYD5japaxsg?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0&w=920&h=415]
In the slums of Uganda’s capital city, Kampala, there is, unbelievably, a burgeoning film industry and its name is Wakaliwood. And in this small community of filmmakers, there is Nabwana Isaac, who has been called Uganda’s Tarantino for his excessive, violent, and yet highly creative homemade films. His movies are made for a few hundred dollars, feature no sound and are filmed right in the slums. People go to see his work in small halls where VJ’s play music and dub the spoken parts. Or as it’s properly known: Awesome. Like Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind come to life, the actors in Nabwana Isaac’s film make all their own props, use crude special effects, and do all their own stunts. And it’s remarkable how convincing it all is.
Nabwana Isaac’s first film was called Who Killed Captain Alex? which saw a huge viewership on YouTube and helped to garner support for further films. Using Kickstarter, he’s surpassed his goals by 8000% (that’s eight thousand percent) and now looks to be creating a whole new market for cult films, and maybe more. Good on him. While sure, the trailer is ultra-low budget and very amateurish, there is no escaping the dedication and authenticity of it. These actors are convincing and take it very seriously. This is the movies for them, and in a world where a single video can change your life, it’s effort like this that deserves attention.
What do you think of the trailer? Would you support this kind of filmmaking? Let us know in the comments below.