A unique Kenyan film ‘Stories of Our Lives,” has made headlines worldwide after it premiered last Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The film which focuses on documenting the lives of Kenyan LGBT members brought together a collection of 5 fictional vignettes to tell the stories of the community that is currently a very sensitive topic in Kenya and Africa as a whole.
The film was directed by Kenyan artist and film maker Jim Chuchu who also produced it alongside other producers.
The film was well received and a particularly raised question after the full list of the cast was accredited to ‘anonymous’ characters, which Chuchu clarified during a recent interview saying was aimed at protecting the actors who portrayed the ‘fictional’ characters in the film.
Chuchu is a co-founder of the NEST, a multi-disciplinary art space in Nairobi, whose members decided last year to travel across Kenya, documenting the lives of the country’s LGBT community. Working with activist groups, they conducted hundreds of anonymous interviews with gay men and women. It was then that the group recognized the project’s potential to bring some of those stories to the screen
‘Stories of Our Lives’ was shot in the course of 8 months on a KES. 1.3 Million budget.
According to AlJazeera, most of the cast and crew were learning on the job as none had prior formal training in film. They had not even considered the possibility of having a premiere at one of the world’s biggest film festivals while they worked on the project.
The project is yet to premiere in Kenya, though the producers are rather unsure of the impact it may have in the country especially considering the recent proposal to parliament to enact strict laws on homosexuality and homosexuals in the country.
Source: VibeWeekly
“Vote BigEye Ug in the Kadanke Youth Awards in the Social Media category.
Simply dial *255#.
Press 3 – Kadanke.
Type 20 and press yes.
Then select option 1 – BigEye Ug.
Thank you.”
