LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

Local detective series ready for the screen

Story by MWANGI GITHAHU | Film
Publication Date: 1/14/2007

Thursday night saw the Kenya National Theatre converted into a marketplace of sorts with broadcasters invited by the Goethe Institut to watch two pilot episodes of a potential TV police detective series, Nairobi CID.

The difference with Thursday’s market was that there was only one product being sold to the broadcasters unlike the ones they normally go to abroad to buy TV shows for screening where there are dozens of programmes on offer.

A series of workshops

The TV show on offer was created during a series of workshops by a group of 11, including Jackson Atyonya, Simiyu Barasa, Cajetan Boy, Moraa Gitaa, Moses Ivayo and Naomi Kamau. The others were Njoki Muhoho, Steve Mugambi, Morrison Mwadulo, Millie Oluoch and Steve Oyugi.

All of them have since the first workshop back in 2004 worked on many other projects and, according to Barbara Reich of the Goethe Institut, under whose auspices they worked and came together, it was a struggle to get them all together again to pitch the idea at the broadcasters.

The workshop was funded by the German script writer Martin Thau who was behind two TV series, Gastspieldirektion Gold (Artist Agency Gold) from 1982 and Nordlichter (Northern Lights) in 1988. He was also a script consultant on the Hollywood horror film Mute Witness.

Before writing for TV, Thau had spent the 1970s writing literature and short crime stories. In the 1980s he wrote the two TV series mentioned above and in the 1990s gave lectures and seminars on television and film at universities and colleges on grants from, amongst others, the Goethe Institut and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Beginning in 2000 he became chief lecturer for script workshop at Munich filmschool and took on material development work on behalf of the Goethe Institut in cities as far and wide as Sofia, Rabat, Nairobi, Antananarivo and Kabul while at the same time giving lectures on film scripts in Graz, Ljubljana and Budapest in former Iron Curtain countries.

Developing show

If any of the broadcasters from Thursday expresses an interest in developing the show from the pilot, it is possible the full series could be screened on a TV near you before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, filmbuffs are eagerly awaiting the promised February appearance on DVD of locally made production, The Stigma, the film dealing with the disgrace and dishonour often related to people suffering from HIV/Aids.

Written by Sheila Mulinya, the 50-minute film, which features a mix of old and new talent, was shot during the last week of November and the first week of December last year.