FILMAKERS AND CRITICS DEBATE RANGE IN KENYA DURING LOLA SCREEN AT GERMAN CULTURAL CENTRE

Ilahaka  francis

The debate of the relationship between critics took centre stage during the 66 edition of Lola Kenya screen held  recently at the German Cultural Center in Nairobi.

Film  makers accused     media critics    for   not  publishing more   on cinemas  and  arts and  cultural  respectively something which was brushed aside  by media personalities because most filmmakers don’t  inform media when they start on project until when they produced  half  baked production

Instead filmmakers were instead advised to  display  there professionalism  in there  work if they  wants  to attract media because currently   most filmmakers and  artist in the Country are   not  seriously

It is  wrong for non starters  and  jokers  to declare them selves as filmmakers when they are  not  creative

The issue of actors and  actress for higher was  also raised something which angered  actors and  actress who normally  hang  at National Theatre to  be hired

Lola  Kenya is  the only forum  that artist  ranging from members of  the  press  filmmakers and producers can meet and  exchange  view  after watching movie’

For historians  Just as some historians have used fiction to help define the cultural history of a decade , others in the twentieth century  have turned to film to describe the spirit of an  age’’ on an elementary level, the  movies help us appreciate changing style in dress furniture, and automobiles . we can even get some sense of how a particular time defined a beautiful woman or handsome man and we can learn about ethnic and racial stereotypes and assumption about gender and class

The decade of the 1930s is sometimes called the golden age of the movies’’ careful selection among the 500 or so feature films Hollywood produced each year  during the decade- ranging from gangster and cowboy movies to Marx brothers comedies, from historical romance to Busby Berkeley musical extravaganzas-could support a number of interpretation about the special myths and assumption of the era. But one historian  has argued that especially after 1934 not only did  the  movies amuse and entertain the nation through its most severe economic and  social disorder holding it together by their capacity to create unifying myths and dreams but movie culture in the 1930s  became a dominant culture for many Americans providing new  values and social ideals to replace shattered old traditions.

The year 1934 was a dividing line for two reasons the motion picture industry like all other industries had suffered during the depression 1933 marked the low point in attendance with more than a third of the theaters  in the country shut down. The next year however attendance pick up heralding and rival that last until 1946. Also 1934 the movie industry adopted a code for which the catholic legion of decency and other religious groups had lobbied the new code prohibited the depiction of sex perversion interracial sex , abortion,incest,drugs and profanity’’ even marriage couples could not be shown together in a double bed although a movie could depict immoral behavior sin always had to be punished evil and good should never be confused the code announced.

Before the code Hollywood had indeed produced graphic films such as the public enemy 1931 and scar face 1932 with a considerable amount of violence musical, such as gold digger of 1933 filled with scantily clad young women films featuring prostitutes such as jean Harlow in red dust 1932 and Marlene and Dietrich in blond Venus 1930s and other films that confronted  the problems of real life but after 1934 Hollywood concentrate on movies that created a mythical world where evil was always punished family moral values won out in the end and patriotism and American democracy were never questioned although the code was modified from time to time it was not abandoned until 1966 when it was replaced by rating system.

It happen one night 1934 and drums along the Mohawk 1939 two films out of thousand illustrate some of the myths the movies create and sustained  frank capra one of Hollywood masters at entertaining without disturbing directed it happened one night a comedy romance a rich girl played by claudete Colbert dives from her fathers yacht off coast of Florida and takes a bus for Newyork. She  meets a newspaper reporter Clark gable they have a series of madcap adventures and fall in love but mix-ups and misunderstanding make it appear that she will marry her old boyfriend in the end however they are reunited and marry in an elaborate outdoor ceremony afterward they presumably live happily ever after the movie is funny and entertaining and present a variation on the poor –bou-marries-rich-girl theme like so many movies of the time this one suggest that life is fulfilled for a woman only if she can find the right man to marry.

Claudette  Colbert also stars in drums along the Mohawk this time with Henry Fonda based on a 1936 novel by Walter Edmonds drums is a sentimental story about a man who builds a house in the wilderness marries a petty girl fights off the Indians and work with the simple country folk to create a satisfying life in the very year the American colonies rebel against great Britain drums was one of a number of films based on historical themes  that Hollywood  released just before world war II the Howards of Virginia 1940 northwest passage1939 and most popular of all gone with the wind 1939 were others in the same genre historical themes had been popular before but with the world on the brink of war the story of men and women in the wilderness struggling for family and country against the Indians stereotyped as savage proved comforting as well as entertaining.

Can a historian use movies to describe he values and myths of particular time or are the complexities and exaggeration too great are the most popular or most popular or most critical a claimed films more useful than others  in getting at the spirit of an age what films popular today tell us most about  our time and culture? Is there  too  much sex and violence in movies today? Should the government control  the language themes and values depicted in movies are movies as important today as they were in the 1930s in defining and influencing the country myths and values? And that is  why Kenya  cannot  be left   behind and this ca only achieved of  filmmakers can  use there  talents  in recording our history

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