 Back to the east circuit and thank you so much for always tuning in man the roof is on fire catastrophe of the one and only dj neshkay and you can send in your comments and remember this time we're only playing kenyan music we are keeping it kenyan i am ivnya again right about now in studio i have young people who are so passionate about film and they are tire tirelessly tirelessly campaigning for artists to have freedom to express themselves and their creativity in studio with me apatu karibuna mii i have kenethki gunda who is the pr and communications consultant at freedom of freedom of expressions campaign then i have um wanja emili who is the impact producer for the film thank you for the rain and then i have the lovely sindim by who is the programs manager of good pitch kenya welcome to the studio thank you okay so i'd like you to introduce yourself and tell us a bit more about this campaign so my name is kenki gunda as you say um the communication and player consultants for freedom of expression and uh what we're trying to do is to advance uh the conversation about us having artistic freedom allowing artist palikwanta and even to doing this is to make sure that we get a fair space for people to be able to tell their stories we are saying what we really think is about when a child comes to the world the first thing they do is to cry yes so this means they have already expressed themselves and they are saying amiya hey listen to me and that's their right so what we are saying you cannot deny that child or the person who wants to express themselves that freedom to do that the good thing is that the constitution that we have that we voted for back in 2010 really gives us that freedom of expression and mostly in africa we come from a society rather that tells stories and we are historically we always used to express ourselves through stories but over and over time we have seen this being katel where some sharias that we have or laws that we have which are colonial and we'll be talking about that maybe later okay and kindly introduce yourself and tell us a bit about good pitch kenya Cindy okay so um as you said my name is sindin bhai and i am the programs manager of good pitch kenya 2020 and good pitch is a live event that brings together documentary filmmakers and um while uh change makers around issues of social and environmental issues and once these people are brought together then it's for the good of the film and for the good of the society so we work and we have a call for documentary filmmakers who are working on real issues and issues that are um or handling um and dealing with social and environmental issues that we we take on those films we have a call for application that is going on right now and it closes on 29th of february and once we receive those films then we select six films that are going to go through the good pitch program and through this good pitch program then there are um mentorship and there is um work that goes in impact clubs that will shape these films into dealing with um into being presented into a way that they're going to deal with and and tackle these impact social impact issues so um i think we will be talking a little bit more about how it works yes definitely kindly introduce yourself wanja yeah so my name is um emily wanja i am the current um is africa impact producer for a documentary called thank you for the rain um interestingly as sindi says but this film thank you for the rain is a good pitch film the good pitch that happened in 2016 because that was the first time it happened yeah and it was among the six that have been selected yes uh from across africa yeah and so so good because it's a kenyan film so it's what you call a kwa production it's a kenyan and norway and the uk kwa production but it's more than that it's a kenyan story yeah and it's a film about a small scale farmer from place in itwamutomo in kitui county and this film is tackles the issue of climate change and it's a question of what does climate change mean on a personal level for a long time for a long time a lot of times you know a lot of reading material on climate change lakini uki translate into your personal level and in your life amakwa life here watu wetu ojago kwa chushu yangu what does it mean yeah and so this film followed kisilu the small scale farmer for five years kwa nisha vile climate actually may change what it means is that the seasons have changed the patterns of rain have changed kukirein kuna kuna aflads when it's hot in unexpected time kuna drought and what it means is that what most of our farmers have traditionally relied on which is traditional knowledge is no longer working and this is because of climate change so that means in our chawakiu and any vulnerable to effects of climate change and this essentially leads to food security and just financial security and so over five years you see kisilu musia this man this incredible man rise from a small scale farmer to a father who is trying to understand what's going on with climate to a community leader to a climate change activist and he goes all the way to paris in cup 21 to represent voices of farmers like him on a global scale and so the film is done and it's out and it's successful i'm gonna be saying later how you can access it and what we've managed to do so far with it yeah and that is why today we'll be talking about artistic freedom of expression so that you can get to hear more stories like that and bring them to the world so um in a few words could you kindly tell our audience what we mean by artistic freedom of expression well artistic artistic freedom of expression is right by we say ukwani imagination this is how i i draw my world yes and i want to tell you this is how my world is so i i my imagination cannot be imagination and how you draw your world cannot be how i will draw my world so what we ask is for everyone to respect that freedom of artistic freedom to allow it and every artist to draw their own world and tell their story like no other person can tell because we are seeing um an artist has that advantage of uh being in a country that is democratic a country that allows freedom of expression that is enshrined in our constitution it's the right it's a right it's like it's it's something inherent so you cannot be able to be it's something born with so um with that we are seeing then there of course there are limits about again we know once we allow these limits once we allow the attainment which can be from any authority then again we won't be we will be coming in the creativity so creativity is just how you imagine the world and how you navigate around that world and how you want to bring change in that world so in in a nutshell that what we call artistic freedom of expression of expression so according to the law um when it comes to filmmakers what are some of the freedoms that they they have been given what are some of the things that they enjoy when it comes to them being creative uh at least here in the country that we are right now today you you're able to imagine you're able to go and shoot a movie you're able to go and create a script you're able to enjoy those freedoms that are already in the constitution that are guaranteed and also if you look at the film uh in stage play act also there are those laws that allow a filmmaker to be able to progress from one area to another for example the government has made it very easy and recently they even passed a law that allows filmmaker incentives to be able to make films again and there was a time even they were inserted for equipment so they can be able to advance the creativity of these stories so we live uh to be honest in a country that we are today it's open uh there's a society that accept so many ideas now it's open to so many ideas and these are the enjoyment that we get because uh we decided to have a very progressive constitution and a law in this country and um looking at maybe the negative side what are some of the things that they are being denied that are holding them back from being creative and taking our stories out to the world again i'll go back to the film act uh film and stage play act cap 222 or in the kenya film classification board laws that govern uh the cap 222 uh you look at some of the act like uh act section six of the of the act it says you must have a license again they are those young people they are creatives but because they need that to be able to produce a movie then their ideas and their stories are died from that particular point who can go ahead and at another section it says you must have a police paleko set who can do kushoot but they most kenya do not know that who can do kushoot any film you must have a police at the set and this police or this authority of of equal measures can be able to stop that film of that uh filming of that whatever creativity you're doing work yeah and uh with that he doesn't give you any guidelines he doesn't tell you why they're stopping they say hey this is humming it's it's harmful to people's uh it's harmful to people's um to other people and so you're you're gonna stop it and you know that's a limitation by itself because again when you go back to chapter three uh that is three of the constitution again it says for freedom of expression it says unless you're causing a harm on on a person's body then you can stop uh but again these ideas they are only imagination they really don't cause harm to someone so uh and you look at that um in that licensing they can deny you licenses at any particular point and they are really they they are not even allowed to describe uh into details why they have denied that particular license so these are some of the things that we're saying they must be repealed for us to be able to progress and to tell the stories in a freer space and to allow the creativity of our young people wale vidyanapale kwa mta wale film makers on afi kumekizi film so is a quenda without easy curtailment in ingit kwanazo so that they can tell their story and they can advance our african stories to the world and if at all uh u kengalia movikama thank you for the rain uh if we can get a easy way to produce so many movies of that kind then you can see the impact that we can really make because uh that film already has brought a dam wale kwa mta those people now can access water those people now can farm those people can i mean it has catered for food security for that particular community so you can imagine if someone else want to speak about and a different type of uh idea or imagination they have there and then again they are given more space uh these laws are changed in a way that they can be able to go without unarmed policemen yeah unarmed policemen the licensee the licensee is um lazima wuki change script atakiti kumuvi kitikuset wekepale you have to take back again the script to kfcb for them to be able to allow you to move to do that yes so that's what some of the laws that we're really saying they need to be looked at they need to be changed for us to be to intern them with the constitution of this country that we have just recently also there was there's also another law that um they are introducing that about the drones no drones are very effective when it comes to showing good scenarios but also that i think it's also an issue that it's holding back creatives as much as we are talking about um the filmmakers from machinani yeah i mean we are in a progressive world where technology is advancing every day every single day the camera we used to use back in 1990s and the one we are using right now things have changed people are filming using their phone and this i mean the youtube clips are winning millions and millions of viewers and earning money for these young people yes so the moment we say atwezie kubali technology come a drone because of security purposes we really need to go delve deep deep and say how then can we handle this security issue rather than you know carpeting and say no you can't use a drone and you have to use a drone you have to go to these authority again we are bringing bureaucracy uh to film to a space that is a creative space and it's a long process and it's a long process and the process that costs you money that and it's expensive again to get even that lessons to bring it to kenya it's cost you around i think right now i'm not so sure about the figures but it accost to 200 000 shillings and this is a person who is working maybe the budget of 50 000 50 000 and yet you expected to compete with Nigeria in Hollywood you expected to compete with Bollywood you expected to compete with Hollywood so uh in short we really need some change yes and um Cindy do you think that filmmakers should be granted total freedom when it comes to producing i mean yeah and and this will be now sucking back to what what good pitch does and and uh what we do is we stand in solidarity with independent filmmakers and we work to protect the independence and by this then um we know documentaries deal with real issues is over to zenezina in the lair you know the current current issues that are within this time that we are at the moment yeah so when when we have this issues and we have filmmakers who already are i've seen what the gaps are and i've seen that there's a certain issue that is happening within their communities and they have that passion to go ahead and and start filming and start working on something so that you can show the entire world that this this issue is going on at this particular point then you you give them that freedom to express what it is that what the issue is and to present it as it is so with good pitch then we put out a call and we tell these filmmakers that if you have these films that you've been working on if you have been following a certain story that is within east africa because at the moment right now we are focusing on east african stories and and that are revolving around social and environmental issues then you send in your application and the applications are open as i mentioned alia until the 29th of february and then after that then these applications go through a shifting process and we pick six films out of that and then these six films then go through the impact the good pitch process and i'll give an example of what happened in 2016 because that's when we had the first good pitch kenya event that happened and it it it took place at the at the kenya national theater and we had these six filmmakers pitch their stories to a group of around 269 individuals from 13 countries and 161 organizations and these audiences had come in to lend their support to these powerful films and and their support comes in in form of funding in form of connections in form of the doors that they open to these filmmakers and policy makers you know they give introductions to various angles that they will make these films achieve the impact that they are intended for and and azwanja is one of the impact producers of the film that was a part of the good pitch then from that you're able to see how the film picks up and and how it's able to impact the community and we had four films from kenya and one film from south africa and another one from sierra leon and through all these films then they've they've they've created a community and and and this is only not just coming from filmmakers it's coming from organizations it's coming from foundations it's coming from NGOs it's coming from the media it's coming from you know various sectors of the civil society to support and and and to bring in that they are to come in in whatever capacity that they bring in to make sure that this film then brings the impact into the society and thank you for the rain is one of the films that was selected among the six maybe could you tell us what are some of the issues that you first when producing that particular film when it comes to limitations yeah i think you know just going back to something that ken mentioned earlier and then i'm gonna you know pick up on where i've seen the left so you know this is the issue of of social issues social change and culture a lot of times like we're talking about climate change we're talking about environment and sometimes that could be seen as a a safe topic you know what i mean like it's not necessarily depending on the angle that you take it's not necessarily a topic that's going to cause controversy a travel starts when it's it's a it's a dicey topic or a very contentious issue where people are very passionate about or it maybe is not very clear the legislation on it or the policies around it and so or where you have a lot of opinion around it and then that starts you know getting the kind of a buzz that ken is talking about so for us it wasn't so much of resistance in that sense but it is resistance and i don't know if i'd call it resistance probably just a challenge that you have to work through in just talking about the issue itself where now you're using storytelling to try and humanize sometimes like a hard topic yeah like a scientific sort of factual topic and you want to put that in a simple way as possible where anybody can relate to it and understand and i think this is then where we come in with the issue of storytelling and the kind of films that sindy's talking about good pitch supporting because these are films that when they are made and when they are done they are dealing with such issues that when they are screened you see the power of film because storytelling cuts across all the more like demographies like it cuts across age education social economic background because it picks one language and that's the language of empathy this is the language of humanity and when they are watching and feeling what we are feeling it doesn't matter what we're coming from right we're just we're touching the way that we are and somehow we are maybe compelled to go and do something and so when you're compelled to do something that we are saying this is where now we need to create and be deliberate about using these films as tools to drive change to create impact because we have seen how powerful storytelling is and so we thank you for the rain for example what Ken was saying earlier so what we did it went through the usual you know we got a distributor with the film which was great and it screened all over the world and that has been amazing and we have even during good pitch received such amazing support and so when you talk about film you're talking about its power to drive change then you're also talking about its power to convene and you have like journalists you have people from the corporate sector civil society people from the advocacy field and we are saying that much as we look like we're different we actually have so much in common right we are we on the same side we want to advance humanity right and bring certain kind of change and film like single handedly is able to converge that diverse you know group of people and so that's exactly what happened with the film we got so much support on the day and so we're like right so now we can see that this this tool is really powerful and we can use it but where do we start right because we are we i'm going to ignore that so because we are we're back in the light we are filmmakers and we need to talk about climate change and get it right but we are not experts in that field and then we realize you know what we don't need to reinvent the wheel all we need to do is go back tap at some of the people that came for good pitch and say what what's the work that you're already doing on the ground how can we collaborate how can we form alliances and partnerships that are gonna help us advance the message and so we started with the community because again this input is all about the people it's the people who are driving who are affected who are the forefront of some of these issues and so we went back to the community led by Kisilu back in Mutomo and we're saying what can we do how can we use this film to bring some kind of change and so the impact campaign that we crafted was together with the community and we divided into three levels where we have things that are happening on the ground we call them community engagement and this is how then the dam came about this is an aft dam it's about 35,450 cubic meter it means that one of these dam first of all we did it in april was it last year last year so it was just then we couldn't do anything yeah and so last deck so it means that the community are going to be able to use this to agricultural activities it's going to be like a say what you call like a financial sort of ecosystem for them so that's on the community level and then we have what we call the advocacy level if you want to nice cream to nice cream for communities in what we call the arid and semi arid lands and we're also screening it in schools again to napat na nana organizations is go kwa ground cbo's community organizations na shule kwanza when you are kuna environment clubs we are going to screen yes schools high schools not a primary schools so again to napat na nawao okay how they help us mobilize and bring the right people in the room to have a good discussion and then on top of that which is very important is getting our stories out there right because it is stories to nafanya see zetu pekeetu whatever you're struggling with kama ni heartbreak kama ni stress it's humanity it's human issues so we have that component where we're trying to make sure that kisilu who is an amazing ambassador of the film even globally he gets a platform to talk about it on these global spaces to represent communities so niku se maje kama una fanya yos tori for example a platform in good pitch it's a platform it's an opening so it grows you it grows you just not you as a filmmaker but it also has a general impact to the society exactly yes exactly and we're doing that together right yes definitely so and um when it comes to artists being free to express their creativity where do we draw the line between all these issues that we're talking about controversial issues because for example the time the film Rafiki was banned and I want to quote a tweet that Dr. Ezekiel Mutua used the debate on Rafiki is not about freedom it's about essential values the hula balu about artistic freedom is a decoy the big agenda is to corrupt our culture and our moral values to kill the institutional family so how do we draw this line between morality and creativity well um what we should know is that where your rights begins where your rights ends someone else's rights begins yes so uh you cannot infringe on my rights because you feel you are the bigger rights than mine yeah so uh all rights are equal and everyone has to tell their story yes and always these moral moral issues always brought into picture just took a tail on someone's right but what we what we call moral and how can we define moral so we need to go deep and see uh then when you say this is a moral issue then um this is someone telling the imagination their story in a happy way yeah uh you cannot say that story to end in a remosfu way because the issue was uh the movie was okay and it was allowed and everything went through until the end when it came and said oh you have to make this ending a very remosfu one yeah but african stories are happy stories and they need to be told the way they are and that's what's in the society it's a reflection of what's happening in the society so uh the moral issue should be handled at another level and the creativity level should be handled at another level because freedom of expression cuts across even journalists people like you um DJs uh filmmakers we are all affected by freedom of expression in the moment we allow someone else freedom of expression to be curtailed you was to be curtailed so uh because you say oh this one should not go the next thing it will be oh even you as we should really limit it all these are well documented in the constitution so we have a very beautiful document why don't we use it why don't we implement it all these issues we talk about they are all catered info in the constitution so well we are still in court uh the judgment is coming on 26th of march so i won't delve much into the case because it's in court but we'll talk our conversation after the court case will be back so that okay so i'm Cindy i would like you to tell me be our audience how they can qualify for the good pitch competition yes okay so the call is out and it went out in january and the call is for filmmakers documentary filmmakers who have their films in advanced advanced stages of production so um you can go to the docu box website and you will see the portal that will give you the guidelines on how to apply but then you need to be an east african um citizen so we are the east africa we are taking four countries and that is kenya uganda tanzania and rwanda for now and the story has to be around issues within east africa yes yeah so the event itself is going to be in oktober uh this year and and as much as we are doing a call for filmmakers to apply we also need the society and the community and then as wanja was pointing out the people that have been uh supporting uh thank you for the rain and they've worked in partnership it's to show that without the support of the community and without the support of these other organizations then our work will not be complete because this is what they bring in they bring in a level of expertise to the filmmakers they bring in their level of knowledge to that and once we pull those resources together then the film stand out stands out and also the society benefits from that sure how long should be the film uh it's a feature feature feature length so for the documentary film because we know what a feature and it's about over 60 minutes yeah about one hour yeah okay all right and um what about these other films that since you select six all these other films what happens to them uh what happens to the other i mean docu box so just to mention that good pitch is hosted by docu box and in partnership with doc society and the kenya film commission and docu box is a documentary film fund so submitting your film through the docu box portal then puts it at the eyes of the decision makers or puts it in a community actually of documentary film makers that if even if you don't receive that documentary grant or even if you don't make it to the to the good pitch event then you're within the pool and and and within a community of other documentary film makers and and from there you do not know where your support will come from or you do not know how you you're able to shape up your your story out of that and i'll give an example of softi which was not a good pitch film but then because they were within the the the documentary family they were within the docu box space then it it went along to achieve great things and we can say it premiered at south dance and you know so it's it's being it's being within that pool of documentary film makers that uh waja will have a brilliant idea or ken will come up with something that will also have conversations that will propel your film to move forward so in so when docu box it's a film fund but also they have this training programs and they have this master classes and so even though you don't cut the six what she's talking about being exposed to this community is also like exposure to networks where this might not have been your fit but there's a lot there's other funds that do exist there's other opportunities to collaborate to make you feel more viable to attract that kind of funding and for you to really figure out how do i really craft my story so it actually gets made and so either way it's you don't lose because you still gain a lot gain a lot and you you get now to participate in the master classes and you get to meet other people also as well because also you know filmmaking sometimes can be a very lonely journey and sometimes it gets really hard and especially documentary filmmaking the kind of documentary is that docu box supports so having that community is so so so important and people who've been through the docu box can tell you even just having that community to kind of bounce off your ideas and know that my my my documentary is taking this kind of shape and i know that it's going to see the light of day that in itself is a win right okay so maybe at the moment you took that step of faith and submitted or you've also won in some way so continue doing the good work and continue looking for these opportunities you never know when your door will open okay so i'd like you guys to share with us your social media pages maybe how people can find you submit their films and get in touch with you people yes for freedom of expression you can find us on facebook freedom of expression ke on twitter we are freedom ke and also the hashtag that we use is free to express okay all right and for good pitch is hashtag good pitch ke 2020 and for docu box you can get on instagram at my docu box or twitter which is docu box film fund yes okay what about you um emily so as you can you can find us thank you for the rain thank you for the rain on twitter thank you for the rain on facebook we're currently not on ig maybe we should explore that but more than that we should if you want to watch the film you can you can stream it or even download from our website just thank you for the rain dot com and it's just like what it's just like 400 bob really yeah and more than that what we're saying is that if kama uko kwa community flanee or you're watching this from the road but you know back home what we're doing they're going through issues yes kwanza kusha na trailer nifri and the trailer kwa youtube chap chap trailer in three minutes takupia very good idea no no no you know what e-film niza screen amona na what we're doing i need to watch e-film ama what we're to a county or i need to watch e-film tell us get in touch with us on facebook or twitter and let's see how we can make that screening happen yeah and maybe this kind of conversations happen because that's what the film is there for it's available okay so thank you so much guys for coming through we appreciate um all the information that you've shared and we hope we'll see more films out there and um yeah more stories out there so in the morning we were asking the question um a gift expensive gifts for that matter important for the relationship important for a relationship and remember we will sample the comments much later and remember their tickets up for grabs for um a movie screening um you can go watch a movie at anga i max ukopa nari and boy child i need to see the best comment for you to get the ticket that i have and girl child we will be sampling those comments much later on and unfortunately we're running out of time so i won't get comments that our guests today but they'll they'll be telling me and i'll share with you on social media yeah so we're taking a short musical break but don't you go anywhere more of the e-sacutes coming your way