A six day scriptwriter's workshop was held at the Kenya Film Commission's auditorium from 24 th March - 29 th March 2008.

The workshop was hosted by Hot Sun Foundation and supported by The U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Programs, ArtVenture and Kenya Film Commission.

The forum was one with unique features as its participants were young people selected from Nairobi's Kibera slum, the largest slum in Africa; all of whom had never received such a training opportunity before. The facilitator/ trainer was Prof. Mary Beth Fielder, a senior lecturer from the prestigious University of Southern California (USC) who teaches beginning and advanced production workshops, introduction to screenwriting and directing for writers. Professor Fielder is also the faculty coordinator for graduate-level thesis projects.

Fielder's small screen directing credits include New Adventures Of Beans Baxter (1987), Thirtysomething (1989) , and Stories From Growing Up (1991), while her writing credits include Once In a Very Blue Moon (2002),  High School , His And Hers and Summer Stock . Among Prof. Fielder's honors are a "Women In Film Foundation Award", "Cine Eagle Trophy" and a "Nissan Focus Award".

Prof Fielder's biggest motivation in coming to Kenya was the desire to give the youth an experience that would change their lives. She had been inspired by the success of her former student , Nathan Collett, the director/ producer of "Kibera Kid" which won international acclaim; including a prestigious Student Emmy award.

Collett's story of a young boy, who faces the tough challenges of life in Kibera, did not end at the screening stage, the film continued give the youth of Kibera a chance to tell their stories through the medium of film. Collett's Hot Sun Foundation has embarked on various projects in the slum geared at towards this end.

 "We wanted to use this workshop to find talents in the Kibera, to create awareness and elicit desire in the youth to find a way of earning their income and we also wanted to inspire the youth to make films by getting someone good enough to train them." Collett notes.

According to Prof. Fielder, her inspiration was based on getting an opportunity to empower the youth, for personal experience, since being introduced to Kibera by Collett while he was still at USC. She wanted to experience it herself: "I knew I wanted to be part of the attempts to change the lives of the youth in Kibera while working with Nathan on his USC thesis film Kibera Kid ."

Many of the youth who attended the workshop are very grateful to Prof. Fielder for sparing time to train them. 23 year old William 'Cartoon' Obwaka who attended the workshop enthusiastically noted: "I learnt about the workshop through Carolina for Kibera Organisation, and decided to seize the opportunity since I did theatre studies for two years and I am involved in volunteer work in Kibera where I teach Music and dance. I wanted to learn more about acting, scripting all geared towards film production."

"We have learnt more about scriptwriting and camerawork and also found an opportunity to interact and hear stories from new people." William adds.

The training which also involved the watching and critiquing of films also gave the trainees an opportunity to get to know the difference between good and bad scripts.

Out of all those who attended the workshop, Hot Sun Foundation will pick at least ten to work with them in their projects and to feature in the full length film of Kibera Kid which is underway. Nathan goes ahead to explain, "The stories we make are about them so we want them to be part of it." As for the rest, they are looking at a possibility of getting them internships with various film making firms in the country.

According to Peter one of the facilitators from Hot Sun Foundation, "the workshop and experience these youth have had after brutal violence following the December 2007 presidential election in Kenya is a beginning of the healing process as they talked about what they saw, experienced and some of the participated in. These stories could be turned into good scripts."

Prof. Fieder added that the youth have incredible talent and enthusiasm and they desperately want to tell their stories. "The workshop is a chance for them to convey their deep emotional beliefs and experiences through this powerful medium - Film. I have been inspired to go back to the US and find a way to come back to set up a Kibera Film School and even extend an opportunity for my colleagues with different expertise in Film to share their knowledge in the field. We could even organize for lectures for the trainees from experienced people in Hollywood."

Collett's parting words: "We appeal to the stakeholders in the Film Industry to be more inclusive of the people from Kibera by offering internships and/ or roles in films, consider ways of supporting people from slums who need to tell their stories. The government should also consider lowering taxation for the medium and low budget films to encourage the youth to be more entrepreneurial."

Collett expressed his gratitude to the Kenya Film Commission for hosting the workshop and their support. "The Commission has truly shown itself to be interested in development of the film industry and in capacity building."

The Commission shall indeed continue to support capacity building efforts in the film industry.

TEA BREAK DURING SCRIPTWRITER'S WORKSHOP

MARY BETH FIELDER WITH TWO PARTICIPANTS

NATHAN COLLETT of HOTSUN FOUNDATION, the main organiser of the workshop.

GROUP PHOTO OF THE SCRIPTWRITERS WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES WHICH INCLUDED CRITIQUING FILM STORY LINES