Nairobi — At the recent 4th Amakula Kampala International Film Festival, filmmakers listed a litany of problems. Top of the list was copyright abuse.

DESPITE ISSUES OF FUNDING, quality, training, broadcast fees, history, language, and copyright abuse, East African filmmakers are finally entering a highly productive phase. This is shown by the booming Nairobi River Road and the Ki-Uganda films in Kampala.

At the recent 4th Amakula Kampala International Film Festival, filmmakers presented a litany of problems afflicting the industry. Top of the list was copyright abuse, that goes unchecked even in countries with the appropriate legislation.

"We have a copyright society in Tanzania but I don't see it playing its role in enforcing the law. For the society to function well, it should be felt at the grassroots across the country. The society should also carry out sensitisation programmes to empower the creators and users in understanding copyright," said Samuel Obae, a Tanzanian filmmaker.

A similar scenario exists in Rwanda where, according to filmmaker Jacques Rutabingwa, the copyright law not being implemented.

"This has given free rein to the pirates because no one punishes them. However, the Ministry of Commerce is currently looking at the intellectual property rights and maybe after the law will be used," he said.

This fear was echoed by his colleague from Uganda, Prince Joe Nakibinge, who said controlling piracy in the movie industry was doubly hard given the fact that a film involves many people who may innocently pass on a copy to the copyright thieves after it has been released.

According to Kenyan filmmaker Wanjiru Kinyanjui, pirates are not easy to nail as they are quick and thorough. However, there is today a concerted effort by the government, artists and producers to arrest those caught with pirated wares.

Already producers have devised ways to rein in the thieves: The package has the original signature of the artist, the distributor's seal, and addresses and phone numbers of the producers and artists.

Another Kenyan producer, Peter Tharao Ngure (Manga in America, 2007, 57 minutes) says many talented young artists in River Road are denied a living and forced out of the industry by pirates who reproduce their films and sell them for as little as Ksh50 (US cents 75).

"The end result is wasted talent," he said.

RUTABINGWA (ISUGI, 2005, 25 minutes) says Rwanda doesn't have any regulations on cinema. Worse, the producers, directors and actors do not know their rights even though the Ministry of Youth has a by-law on the protection of scriptwriters.

"When I give you my idea for a story you translate it into a movie, who takes the credit and acknowledgement?" He asks.

To circumvent the problem of funding, Rutabingwa persuades volunteers that appearing on screen will open doors for them and help build their careers. He then offers his own clothes as costumes, houses and feeds the entire team on his own.

Funding in Kenya is also an issue. Kinyanjui blames the problem on lack of cultural policies.

"We don't have a cultural policy to support the arts in general in Kenya, and people are not aware or used to viewing African films. Our national television doesn't commission freelance producers, so we don't produce for television. In the end, it's cheaper for televisions to buy low-cost, rejected soaps and movies from the West," he said.

She says the government has only succeeded in turning the country into a shooting location for foreign film crews.

The financing of films in Kenya has been in the hands of donors, NGOs and foreign institutions - not especially conducive to nurturing and supporting local talent. The subject matter, which is mostly on development issues, has little to do with entertainment.

KINYANJUI OBSERVES IN A paper, The Booming Show Business in Nairobi's River Road District, presented at the 2nd Amakula Kampala International Film Festival in 2005, that there is a growing alternative to those who do not wish to be confined to foreign programming. In the River Road area, a whole new phenomenon is taking over the visual entertainment industry.

Stand-up comedians, Kinyanjui says, have discovered the cheaper route of video production, and, to go with it, the appropriate marketing strategies. The cheaper, broadcast quality digital, video camera has invaded Kenya, with the result that many people can now afford their own cameras. Expensive video editing has also been taken over by the cheaper personal computer.

"Most of the River Road artists have no formal training in acting or in filmmaking. Most had never been before the camera before their first VCD appearances. They have plenty of experience in making people laugh, though, and it is this that is pulling audiences like a magnet. What is also interesting is that this phenomenon seems to be artists driven rather than producer-driven," she observes.

It is the artists who come up with the idea, and who star in the comedies. They work on their own storylines before approaching a suitable producer much like Charlie Chaplin and United Artists.

Many artists, after their first VCD is fully financed by the producer, revert to commissioning the producer so that they don't have to share the profits, Kinyanjui adds.

Business, rather than art or politics, is the guiding drive, Kinyanjui notes. The storylines are about everyday problems. Many of the settings are rural. The stars are old men who spend their coffee boom money on beer and, sometimes, prostitutes instead of paying off debts.

"There seems to be no age bracket of audiences: young and old enjoy the VCDs depending on their story quality. Parents can watch them with their children because there is no overt sex, violence or tension in the films. The humour is straightforward and simple, but one needs to know the language. So far, no one has tried working with subtitle, but that will come," Kinyanjui says.

The editing and VCD cover designs are all done in River Road and once the VCD is packaged, it is sold in various shops around the city. Persons directly known to the producer might take some VCDs on credit to other towns like Mombasa, Nakuru and Naivasha. They remit the money, minus their commission (usually about 10 per cent), to the producer if they sell. If they don't find buyers, they can return the goods.

River Road videos, says Kinyanjui, are strictly a business. They are sold to the man on the street, much like groceries. For various reasons, they have not considered offering their product to television channels. Having found their audience, why worry about "highbrow" television?

IN ADDITION, VCD PLAYERS ARE cheaper than VHS players. There are VCD players that utilise batteries, which means that people who do not have electricity, especially in the rural areas or in the slums, can still watch films on VCD.

Says Kinyanjui, "It is time to get to know the market and appreciate the fact that the people really do want to watch local films, especially those that will entertain them."

According to the Ugandan producer of the drama series, Eky'Ekango Mu Mukwano (Love Shock, 2007, 90 minutes) Osman Matovu, language can be a problem.

"Some people prefer local languages while others want English. Those who prefer local languages do buy our films while the English speaking elite with more money are instead full of criticism and don't value local productions," Matovu said.