KFCB Boss Dr Ezekiel Mutua has today urged Kenyan film makers and the consumers to promote the local films in order to grow the Industry.
These remarks came during a meeting which was today held by the Kenya Films Classification Board in partnership with other countries from diaspora.
The intention is to allow the country to grow in the lines of film,creativity and skills that will make Kenya be competent even in the International market.
One of the issues that came into discussion is the unexploited potential that Kenya has judging from the national drama festival acts.
The meeting provided a platform to express the need to make films that promote Africa, to change the warped narrative about the continent and to inspire hope and pride in the people of Africa.
Mutua urged all film makers to continue exploring opportunities that better their skills, identify and nurture new talent, and that expose Kenyan content to the film market, both locally and internationally.
“Our main goal is to nurture talent and creating opportunities for training for players in the industry, creating more employment opportunities through entrepreneurial ventures in the creative sector.” Mutua added
Hollywood has contributed significantly to branding America as a super power and promoting the country’s ideology and therefore Kenyans have also been asked to embrace their creativity and be equally proud of it.
There is a belief that if we have the Kenya TV channels playing more of the local films other than international, we will all see the market for local films grow significantly.
Mutua said that it is a collective duty to ensure that the film production industry is ranked top. ” let us be the first market for our own” he said
Mutua also said that one of the reason why the film industry is facing a huge backlash is because the global content giants are taking advantage of our irrational behaviour, and have started to archive our own cultural material such that in the future we shall buy it from them.
“At the minimum, we should build digital libraries of our cultural heritage.” he said
I personally agree with Ezekiel Mutua citing the example of the ‘Hakuna Matata’ slogan which is now a trademark of one of the biggest film making industry in America ‘Disney’
Which recently led to an uproar and beyond that a petition over the claims that it is a grand theft of the African Cultural heritage.