Conclusion

In the suburb of Rubaga, one of the least affluent parts of Kampala, Uganda, a “film marathon” is under way in one of the city’s estimated 2,000 kibanda (video halls), wood-and-tin shacks that usually serve up English league football matches and “VJed” Hollywood, Bollywood, and kung fu films five times a day to packed audiences. The “film marathon” has been organized by Dutch art historian Alice Smits and American filmmaker Lee Ellickson as part of the Amakula Kampala International Film Festival, which is now (in 2010) in its seventh year. The marathon consists of three films: a contemporary film from Cameroon (Mah Saah-Sah), a “classic” film from Ghana (Heritage Africa), and the first part of a film made by Smits herself in Uganda—The Video Crusades: Tugenda Mumaso! It is Smits’s film that is now playing in the dark, stuffy venue in Rubaga; in Luganda, it is about the video halls themselves—about how popular they are with Kampalans and how the Ugandan government is supporting a controversial union that is attempting to force them to conform to health and safety standards their owners simply cannot afford. The video hall is filled with people, but their eyes are glazed over. They are clearly not finding this indignant, worthy film about the type of place in which they are currently sitting very interesting. Smits is at a different festival venue and so is not there to see when some audience members ask the projectionist to take off The Video Crusades and put on a Chuck Norris film instead.