"Ni Kuruka Maisha / Jumping into Life" is a feature documentary whose main characters are young adults trained at the school of arts Kuruka Maïsha. Directed and filmed by young people from the same social background, the film offers a complicit and intense look at the life of young people in the slums. A real life, with all its nuances : joy, sadness, boredom, hope, disappointment, imagination, frustration and creating. Living in a hostile environment and suffering degrading treatment is not (...)
"Ni Kuruka Maisha / Jumping into Life" is a feature documentary whose main characters are young adults trained at the school of arts Kuruka Maïsha. Directed and filmed by young people from the same social background, the film offers a complicit and intense look at the life of young people in the slums. A real life, with all its nuances : joy, sadness, boredom, hope, disappointment, imagination, frustration and creating. Living in a hostile environment and suffering degrading treatment is not sufficient to summarize the identity of these youngsters, full of creativity and imagination. The film shows all the joy and pleasure they experience discovering their talents as entertainers, but suggests both the complexity and sometimes delusion they can encounter facing fantasies and dreams that arouse them in being an artist.
The school of arts Kuruka Maïsha received « The National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award 2013 » from Michele Obama. - youtube
05/04/2014 - 16:30 - Museum M Leuven - Leopold Vanderkelenstraat 28, 3000 Leuven
Tickets : Afrikafilmfestival
Ni kuruka Maisha / Jumping into Life
Presentation of the co-producers of the documentary ‘Ni Kuruka Maisha’
Kuruka Maisha Foundation is an arts school for street children. It was developed on the premise that artistic activities help streetkids in numerous ways. The school offers classes in visual arts and performing arts such as acrobatics, African traditional and contemporary dance, Capoeira, drama, fine art and music. Each class has very specific objectives and priorities and a well defined pedagogical approach. Artistic activities help the social workers to establish the contact with the children in the street while on the other hand these activities have an important impact on the physical and mental condition of the children.
The Mwelu Foundation is a youth project based in the Mathare Valley slum in Nairobi, Kenya. They use photography and film production to document their lives and communicate their stories - problems as well as their hopes - to the wider world. They have set up a library and are taking positive steps to improve their livelihoods by building essential life skills. Through their initiatives they also hope that they can begin to debunk the myth that slums like Mathare are dead-end places with no potential or home-grown talent.
Africalia vzwsupports professional organizations and networks in sub-Saharan Africa that contribute to the flourishing of artists that in turn play their social and societal role in strengthening democracies. Africalia cooperates with a limited number of partners working to high professional standards on the production and dissemination of artistic output, within and from seven African countries : Burkina Faso, Burundi, DRC, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Africalia also coproduces books, films and exhibitions which showcase contemporary cultural forms in Africa.
Elijah Mumo – editor : ‘My name is Elijah Mumo, I am twenty-four years old. I head the video and filmmaking activities at the Mwelu Foundation. I am an honours Nairobits graduate which combined my love for web design, photography, video and film making. I have worked for the WHO, Nine Lives, True Blaq Entertainment and have been selected to attend several film making and production workshops. I now train Mwelu Foundation members on the same topics. I was born in Mathare slum and I am the last born in a family of four with two brothers and a sister. I joined Mwelu Foundation in the year 2008 since I was inspired by the good team work I saw in the group and the love that I have for the electronic media. With the young innovative minds we have in the Mwelu Foundation I believe that the sky is the limit.’
Jesse Ng’ang’a (aka Ehoodi Kichapi) : Painter-Sculptor, artistic coordinator of Kurkuka Maisha (38 ans), driving force.
