Welcome to the March 2009 issue of the Kenya Film Commission’s e-newsletter.

Film going for Kenyans for a very long time meant only Hollywood. Some even said that if there was a Kenyan culture, it was to a large extent the creation of … Hollywood.

But Kenyans began to realize that it was unhealthy to see only other people’s images and never to see anything of our own when we went to the movies..
Kenyans wanted to make movies in their own country, and they began a campaign to persuade the Government to give some support for filmmaking by Kenyans.

The Kenya Film Commission was given the responsibility of overseeing the development and production of Kenyan movies for Kenyan’s to see. One of our major tasks has been to market the films to local audiences.

So the reputation of our new industry is growing fast … in only two years we have gone from invisibility to having a film in the most important competition in the world.

For years, our small production base wasn’t large enough to sustain a film industry. But there is a huge passion to tell Kenyan stories on film … and this became possible when the Kenya Film Commission was established.

This years target will be to builds upon the structural changes that have been taking place in the film industry since the Commission was set up in 2005.

But the local industry also knows that the sheer size of the international entertainment market offers our domestic professionals additional opportunities, and that the synergies between the domestic and foreign film sectors deliver benefits both ways.

However such days don't miraculously emerge from a vacuum. They build on existing policies and commitments, and certainly in this case, they represent the culmination of a period of intense consideration.

They are also the next installment in the decades of Government initiatives supporting the film industry. Too often, Kenyan film and television projects have either not proceeded to production, or have been rushed into production prematurely, because of an inadequate development process. Several studies commissioned by the Government within the industry have agreed on one point: the development process cannot be fast-tracked if projects are to be translated from promising concepts into successful features that speak to an audience.

All these initiatives are strategically targeted to build on the existing strengths of the Kenyan film sector, while ensuring it has the capacity to adapt to and exploit the great changes being wrought upon the entertainment sector by technological advances.

It is with this in mind that the Commission saw it essential to reward the hardworking Kenyan film makers.

This will go down in history as a significant year for Kenya's film industry, the year Kenyan’s are going to experience the first ever Kenya Film and television awards; Kalasha.

Thank you