'Slum Film Festival' showcases urban stories_美文

'Slum Film Festival' showcases urban stories

The Nairobi-based Slum Film Festival showcases the work of East African filmmakers living in the slums. This year, the judges selected 33 films to be shown in Kibera and Mathare, two huge Nairobi slums.

It's a community-based event, featuring films by and about people living in urban slums, screened in the open air. The 'Slum Film Festival'allows filmmakers to show their work to residents of the areas where the stories take place.

Robert Kodingo works with a foundation that trains budding filmmakers in Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum. He helped organize the festival.

"[The] Slum Film Festival was just a platform for some of these local productions that are done by people from a disadvantaged population, to give them a voice and enable them to express what they do best," Kodingo explained.

Kibera filmmaker Max P.V. says, in her films, she shows there is more to slum life than violence and poverty.

"Most people make the mistake of, they hear slum, and all they think is negative," she explained. "They think guns and ammunition, people dying, children being beaten up, girls being raped, I mean, that's not really what the slum is all about."

Film production anywhere is complex. But filmmakers from the slums face special challenges. Budgets are small or non-existent. The lack of resources means filming is done on-location instead of sets.