By Dismas Nuwaine
“Alright guys, we’re rolling in 3… 2… 1… action,” director Brian Kabogoza announces to the cast as he leans in on the camera, operated by Richard Ssekitoleko, capturing a long shot of the actors on set.
This is on the set of the movie, My First Year – a coming of age story about four students who come from different backgrounds and face new realities of life at the university. The movie is a third installment of the series that also featured, My Degree and My Background.
All these movies have one thing in common, they are all student based movies, and are directed by Kabogoza, a student in the Uganda Christian University (UCU) school of Journalism, Media and Communication. What is perhaps uncommon about the movies, amongst many things, is their overall narrative depth and motion picture quality. What’s more impressive is that on top of winning multiple awards, like one at the World Student Impact Film festival, held in the United States of America, this movie has hit the big screens, in Uganda and beyond. Kabogoza got the opportunity to have this film submitted to one of the most popular online subscription services, Amazon Prime for international distribution, to its over 230 million members worldwide.
Currently Kabogoza is on a sponsored, filmmaking scholarship at the Multichoice Talent Factory (MTF) Academy in Kenya. This is a 12-month immersion programme including both theory and hands-on experience in cinematography, editing, audio production and storytelling. Simply put, he’s honing his skills the more.
Though still a student, Kabogoza is widely seen as a local hero within and outside the university’s creative circles. He has not just dared to dream, he has acted on it still. His zealous pursuit for what he loves has reaped fruits, not just for himself, but for those he has worked with. One such person is Deborah Anita Talemwa, a journalism student in third year. She has acted in all of the three movies Kabogoza has directed.
“Working with Brian has helped me to realize that I am passionate and gifted in acting,” she says, and strikes a pose. “When I joined campus, I was bent on becoming a war reporter in the field of journalism, but my passions have long changed, my perspective has changed.” She says that the acting stint has opened her to a window of opportunities in the creative industry.
“I was approached by another director, Douglas Byaruhanga, who asked me to take part in the Cookies and Sweets film,” she says. Byaruhanga has also received opportunities from the advertising sector. “I am currently working on an advert with the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and I couldn’t have opportunities, such as these, if it wasn’t for my stint in Director Kabogoza’s movies,” she reveals.
Director Kabogoza as he is known among the team, grew up in Kituba, a village in Nama, Mukono, Central Uganda, in a humble family that lacked certain luxuries such as a television set at home.
“I used to go to the neighbours to watch television, and going back home, my mom would always cane me,” said the director, reflectively. The strokes of the cane couldn’t deter the young man who especially loved the iconic Nigerian duo of “Aki and Popo”. He continued to escape to catch glimpses of the world beyond.
Kabogoza is a funny character. This and his short stature struck an especially remarkable semblance with the two best nollywood actors – Osita Iheme and Chinedu Ikedieze, so much so that his childhood friends encouraged him to take the path of an actor and be just like them. This prompted him to venture into acting during primary school, where he quickly became a standout performer in music, dance, and drama competitions.
“I had been winning countless certificates as best actor throughout primary school.” He started mobilising his fellow students at that early stage to work on student productions. He didn’t know it then, but he was learning the principles and nuances of production management. This would later aid him manage his professional sets.
He went to Namilyango College for his Ordinary Level and here, he continued to feature in the student based productions. He was always curious to create and this zeal once got him into trouble. “I once stole my Uncle’s camera and took it to school. I shot some simple skits, which I sold later on.” Kabogoza was taken to the disciplinary hearing and was almost on the verge of being expelled. This passionate student was becoming too hot to handle.
In his Advanced Level, Kabogoza joined Makerere College School, and here he grew a passion for sports. He put his well built muscles to good use and excelled at the sport. Though he continued to act, and create, part of that time was taken up by the rugby game. For the first time since he knew he had discovered his passion, Kabogoza was at a crossroads. Suddenly he had to make a choice, what he wanted to do more than the other.
He chose his passion – creating. On joining UCU, Kabogoza got the opportunity that he had longed to have over the years. School was flexible and he had more time at his disposal. The school of journalism was stoked with the necessary equipment for a startup production, and he had access to this equipment.
The skills of production management, which he had learnt while in primary school, became handy at this stage. He assembled together a team of fellow budding visionary creators. An executive producer, Richard Sekyitoreko, a producer, Emmanuel Illungole, a skilled editor, Conrald Galdino, the sound engineer, Ivan Echoni, and many other notable names.
Kabogoza did not allow the fear of inexperience, and that of failing, to get the best of him, at the very start. Armed with two sony cameras, a boom microphone, a light reflector and a handful of actors, he set about executing his first movie, My Degree. Before he knew it, he was going bigger with My Background, which won awards both local and international.
“We didn’t stop there,” the director told me, he continued, “We went on to execute My First Year which is doing even better. It has got me a scholarship from Multichoice to go to Nairobi, which I am currently on.”
“Growing up from a background like l do and making it to places that I am is indeed a testament to the goodness of the Lord,” says the director. “My dream is to make sure that I build my family a better home. I just want my story to inspire someone out there, not only me.”
This is just the start for Kabogoza. He is extremely optimistic and looks at his work as a way of spreading God’s word.
“It is about you going out there and showing the world who you are, it has always been my prayer to be the light,” Kabogoza says and refers to scripture: “In Matthew 5, our light should shine bright so that those around us may be witness to our good works and give glory to our father who art in heaven.”
“Ask him ,what motivated him to purdue his dreams, he took Journalism, took the traditional root, this couldnt have been easy and where students in particular 10 yrs from now.
