Wakaliwood

Wakaliwood, also known asRamon Film Productions, is a film studio based in Wakaliga, a slum inUganda's capital ofKampala. Its founder and director is Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana, a.k.a.Nabwana I.G.G.,^[1] who has been called Uganda'sQuentin Tarantino,^[2] after thegratuitous violence in his films. Wakaliwood is best known for its ultra-low budget (estimated to be in the region of $200^[3]) action movies, such asWho Killed Captain Alex?,Bad Black,Tebaatusasula, and the upcoming crowdsourced filmTebaatusasula: Ebola.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Wakaliwood

Industry	Entertainment
Founded	2005
Founders	Nabwana I.G.G. Alan Hofmanis
Headquarters	Kampala , Uganda
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Nabwana I.G.G. Alan Hofmanis
Products	Motion pictures
Website	wakaliwood.com

History

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Isaac Nabwana spent his childhood during the brutal regime ofIdi Amin in the 1970s. While the rest of Uganda was stricken with violence and ethnic cleansing, the farmland that Nabwana's grandfather owned was relatively peaceful. His inspirations for filmmaking came from reruns ofHawaii Five-O andLogan's Run, as well as his love ofHollywood action movies andmartial arts films from his childhood. As he had never been in a theatre, he relied mostly on his brothers and friends' descriptions of films that were just released theatrically. In 2005, after taking a computer course on video editing and watching video tutorials on filmmaking, Nabwana founded Ramon Film Productions, naming it after his grandmothers, Rachael and Monica.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

Alan Hofmanis, a film festival director based inNew York City, traveled to Uganda after a friend who worked at anNGO showed him a trailer forWho Killed Captain Alex? onYouTube. After meeting Nabwana and producing a documentary on Ramon Film Productions, Hofmanis has since moved to Uganda to help promote Wakaliwood cinema worldwide. He was also given a starring role in Nabwana's 2016 filmBad Black and has been called "the firstMzungu Ugandan action movie star."^[7]^[8]^[9]

The studio makes props andjibs out of DIY parts, which commentators have compared to the early days ofHollywood. Among the studio's props is a full-sized helicopter frame that has become a staple in all Wakaliwood films. Nabwana shoots and edits his films using old computers that he assembles.Squibs andtheatrical blood, used to simulate bloody gunshots, are made from condoms filled with redfood coloring and tied to fishing lines before being taped to the actors' chests.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8] Nabwana had previously used cow blood, but was forced to discontinue its use after one of his actors developedbrucellosis.^[3]

Upon a film's completion, the actors sell DVD copies door-to-door in a one-week time window to ensure they make money before the film is bootlegged.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

In Uganda, audiences go to video halls whereVJs narrate over a feature film, translating the dialogue and adding their own commentary^[10] – making low budget films with VJ commentary likecult films.^[5]

On 2 March 2015, Wakaliwood set up aKickstarter campaign to raise US$160 for the filmTebaatusasula: Ebola. The studio was able to receive over US$13,000 from 374 backers by 1 April.Tebaatusasula: Ebola serves as the direct sequel toWho Killed Captain Alex? and a remake of the 2010 filmTebaatusasula, which waslost after a massive power surge destroyed the hard drive that contained the film.^[11] In September of that year, the Wakaliwood crew attended theNyege Nyege Festival inJinja and spent two days shootingAttack on Nyege Nyege with the festival attendees as extras.^[12]^[13]

Bad Black was a critical and audience favorite at theSeattle International Film Festival in 2017.^[14]^[15] The film earned an encore presentation on the last day of the festival, with the film being screened a total of four times throughout the festival.^[14] The Seattle audience question and answer session with the director was conducted overSkype.^[14]

In 2019, for the project by French artist Louis-Cyprien Rials, as part of theSAM Prize for Contemporary Art, they are making a remake ofAkira Kurosawa's Japanese filmRashomon entitledBoda-Boda Killer (Trashomon) forAu bord de la route de Wakaliga exhibition at thePalais de Tokyo in Paris.

In 2020, Wakaliwood collaborated with Germanmelodic death metal bandHeaven Shall Burn to direct the music video for "Eradicate", from their albumOf Truth and Sacrifice.^[16] As an artist group, Wakaliga Uganda was invited todocumenta fifteen in 2022.^[17]