Kampala — We had a chat with Yasin Kasumba, an executive committee member of Uganda Federation of Movie Industry.

Kasumba is also the proprietor of Video World Entertainment Centre, distributors of locally-made films.

THE UGANDA FEDERATION OF MOVIE INDUSTRY

We began this organisation about three years ago, with fostering unity among the local film fraternity as our main objective. The organisation brings together filmmakers, directors, producers, scriptwriters, actors, actresses and distributors. We are currently working very hard at sensitising the public about the copyright law. Beginning this December, we shall be traversing the country in a major sensitisation campaign.

BACKGROUND OF AWARDS

Since the local film industry is in its infant stages, we figured the introduction of movie awards would be one sure way of encouraging more people - actors, scriptwriters, producers, directors and distributors - to join the industry. You can see how the Pearl of Africa Music (PAM) Awards have changed the face of the Ugandan music industry.

LUCRATIVE BUSINESS

We are still investing in the industry. For instance, bringing here Ramsey Noah and Genevieve Nnaji to the Awards show cost us close to $100,000, a figure that is hard to recover from gate collections alone.

It was quite costly to bring them because we had to fly them from the US, especially considering the fact that we have no sponsors yet. But this will pay dividends like in the next five years when the public begins to appreciate locally-made films. Currently, Ugandans living in the diaspora are the main consumers of locally-made films.