Kampala — The National Theatre was filled with activity and excitement on Aug. 13 the opening night of the inaugural Maisha African Film Festival. Amongst the socialites, decked out in their finery, were numerous young, talented actors, editors, screenwriters and directors who had all gathered to celebrate a gathering storm of success for Ugandan film. In the auditorium

People clamoured for seats for the showpiece of the night--a screening of iMANi--and each time a character made a joke the place would explode with laughter, chatter and shouted comments.

Directed by Carol Kamya and other alumni from Maisha, an organization dedicated to providing training to Ugandan filmmakers, iMANi depicts a day in the life of three Ugandans: a child soldier returning home, a maid desperate to help her friend, a young break-dancer trying to follow his dreams. The scenes are familiar to a Ugandan audience but actually seeing them onscreen, executed in such a professional manner, is wholly unfamiliar. The film has been screened around the world, garnering praise and six international awards.

To understand the story properly it is important to go back to 2005 to when Mina Zair, acclaimed director of international hits such as Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake, established Maisha, because as Ms Zair stated publically on opening night, "If we don't tell our own stories, no one else will."

For years, Uganda has tended to import most of its culture: the hip hop, RnB and reggae that populates the charts is based on Western music; the films that dominate Cineplex and get quickly copied and sold in Wandegeya or Kisementi are normally from the USA or India; even something as simple as what people wear everyday is, by and large, far from Ugandan in origin. Sharpe Ssewali, a young screenwriter and director who is currently getting his film off the ground, says this phenomenon has to be stopped:

"It's time Africa exported its culture to the rest of the world," he reasons. "Kids in Gulu speak with American accents, using American slang... that comes from watching films and television exported from the US." Kimanje Mark, the Marketing Manager for iMANi, cited the example of how Congolese music, another outside source, dominated in Uganda until ten or fifteen years ago. Now the music scene is almost exclusively populated by Ugandan acts, many of them performing in their native tongue, and it remains a massively popular industry. Even the fact that iMANi, a relatively low-budget film made by several young Ugandan filmmakers, was shown at Cineplex, up against the enormous power and finances of Hollywood films shows that Ugandan film deserves its platform.

There are, however, some serious challenges to Ugandan filmmaking. As it stands, the industry is propped up by one off commissions, donations, art grants and filmmakers who are able to self-finance. There is no properly functioning infrastructure that ensures any lasting growth. Matt Bish, a director and editor who previously worked in the Netherlands, says that even as someone who owns and manages his own studio, he has no proper way of controlling the distribution of his films. The best he can hope for is to leave it with the people who run the pirate DVD racket around the country - they have more expertise than anyone else. There is no legitimate framework that filmmakers can work within once they've actually created their product, it just gets released to whomever or wherever will stock it. The only way he has ever gotten any recognition is by entering film festivals.

Thankfully, events like Maisha African Film festival and, the other great film event in Kampala, Amakula Film Festival, which has now been running for six years, are around to try and increase awareness of Ugandan films outside of pirated distribution. Amakula showcases East African talent as well as bringing international films (although some have criticised the festival for placing too much emphasis on the latter) to the attention of the general public, many of whom are frustrated by the fact that it is very difficult to find films other than the latest big Hollywood blockbusters. "Sometimes it takes too long for films to get here or they don't appear at all, so in the end I grow tired of looking for it," says a browsing customer at a DVD stand.

Before the ecstasies of the inaugural screening of the first African Film Festival at National Theatre, Maisha had been running a series of workshops where industry experts had been teaching young Ugandans techniques and tricks for how to put together a great movie. At the last workshop, run by American actor Giancarlo Esposito (The Usual Suspects, School Daze, Do The Right Thing), there was a packed room of aspiring actors and actresses who soaked up Mr Esposito's remarkable passion and sensible advice. He stripped it back to the basics of what being in a creative industry means - communication.

"It's all about being an excellent communicator... Film is the language of many different nations and people; I truly believe that it has the ability to change the world."

One of the people he touched with his workshop was Peace Among, a twenty four year old actress who first started performing in plays at school. In 1998 she went on to perform at National Theatre to acclaim - she won an award for Best Actress for her depiction of a 'suga mama' at the ripe age of 12 - and has been completely obsessed with acting and performing ever since. For her, it's something she feels she has to do,

"Acting lives in me. If they gave me any part, I would do it. I know I'll make it, I have faith, I have hope. I know I will"

Like several other young people involved in the burgeoning film industry here, Among studied an unrelated subject at university (Journalism, others had done Civil Engineering, Architecture and even Biological Science) before realising that she had to follow her passion. She is always perfectly dressed (ready trained for stardom) and burns with ambition - she models in Nairobi and has just released a single under her stage name Peace 'The Luo'. Among says her real passion is acting and that it will take her all the way to Hollywood, a line that is said with a laugh but with an undercurrent of determination that seems firmly rooted in everyday life. Her days are spent meeting with potential employers, cajoling them, networking, persuading, constantly selling herself to everyone just in case they might be the ones to take her to the heady heights of fame: it isn't easy to survive as a performer in Uganda and it takes a special kind of commitment, a type of courage, to do so. This is part of what these workshops have given her.

Film appears to have a great future. The platform provided by excellent teaching at Maisha combined with the incredible passion and support of the young Ugandans who want to make films stands them in good stead. What is more, this is a country in which there are many stories to tell - the international success of The Last King of Scotland is a prime example of this - most of which remain untold. But perhaps most important is the medium itself: not as inaccessibly highbrow as visual art, not as prohibitively expensive or elitist as fashion (a truism that applies all over the world), film has an incredible advantage because of how it can appeal to people's emotions through visuals as well as through sound. The way a novel can absorb someone is often remarkably all encompassing but it remains an experience restricted to good readers. Film, on the other hand, can be consumed and understood by pretty much everyone and it can have a similar immersive quality.

The more this energy that surrounds filmmaking in Uganda lasts the more likely high quality films such as iMANi or Bish's Battle Of The Souls, will be produced. Trust and public awareness of Ugandan filmmaking will consequently grow, creating more opportunities and, finally, a proper industry.

"Whenever people see a really good Ugandan film there's a lot of excitement about it, people think 'yeah, we can really do this!'" says Bish. "And having that belief is one of the big issues for funding - these companies don't believe that Ugandans can actually make something good."

This is the dream of those young filmmakers who stood and applauded Ms Nair's message, they want to be able to tell their stories and to be able to tell them in a way that touches people both domestically and internationally.