How ‘Nairobi Half Life’ producer builds Kenyan film talent

After producing Nairobi Half Life two years ago, One Fine Day Films has a fourth release, Veve. It is showing in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

Apart from making films, One Fine Day also mentors and trains budding filmmakers.

“We pick people at a two-week workshop for filmmakers all over the continent in seven areas: directing, cinematography, scripting, editing, sound, production and production design,” says Sarika Hemi Lakhani, the project manager and producer at One Fine Day Films.

This group is assembled for next shoot, but “among them, we are also looking for writers by doing a call for stories.” Together with Ginger Ink, a local partner, they organise workshops after every one or one-and-a-half years. The next workshop will probably be held at the end of next year but shooting will begin in February.

Scripts are selected based on budget, possible recreation, and a local story line.

“The local story has to be interesting. We do not only look at the script but also the person writing it. Does this person have something to say or tell? Is there space for the person to develop?” says the producer.

Talent galore but not all fit the mentorship programme that demands openness, says Lakhani, adding it is a long journey.

“The most difficult part for me as a producer is when somebody says ‘I want to act in your new film’. This is something impossible to create; it is the movie that dictates needs not us.”
The cast is usually a mix of new and established actors, making a perfect blend.

But the producer, who has been in Kenya since 2008, says working with different people has been a rich learning experience where they learn from missteps. Comment on the Kenyan film industry? A tough task, she says, but points out that when Kenyans talk about the film industry, they often mean the TV industry.

“There are opportunities for people we work with who are getting openings. Whether it is TV or cinema, people can see potential but nobody really knows where it is going or where the real potential is.”

The four films: SoulBoy (2008), Nairobi Half Life (2012), Something Necessary (2013) and Veve (2014) were funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Filmstiftung NRW and the Goethe Institut in Nairobi.

“Budget restrictions are always there. It will be naïve to say that there is such a thing as enough money. It does not exist. On another note, money can’t create art anyway. You have to work around with what you have and see what you can do,” says the project manager.

After February, the team will have to be more creative because the Germans have put funding on hold to evaluate the project. Unfortunately, there are no systems in place for co-productions in Kenya.

“Whenever we mention that Nairobi Half Life is classified as a Kenyan/German production and has a German certificate of origin, that causes a lot of discomfort,” says Lakhani.

Facts and standards

“The discussion is emotive rather than driven by facts and standards of international collaboration: the movies are shot here, the talent is from here and the money comes from overseas. It is like having dual citizenship, which allows the production to enjoy further funding.”

A movie can have different ‘passports’ to allow funding access from both sides and favourable taxation and levies.

“Kenya has a lot of opportunities to make things better and build an infrastructure which supports filmmakers make a living out of movies,” she says.  

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