Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu is among 8 winners of the inaugural Triggerfish Story Lab. Wanuri Kahiu’s feature film The Camel Racer, which is in collaboration with Nigerian writer Nnedi Okorafor, was among four features and four TV series selected for development.
The Story Lab was launched in July this year after which they received 1,378 entries from 30 countries across Africa. 23 features and 14 TV series were shortlisted and in this list were two Kenyans i.e. Wanuri Kahiu and Judy Kibinge. The shortlisted projects were then developed over a two-week intensive workshop in Cape Town in November 2015 with Orion Ross, Vice President of Content – Animation, Digital and Acquisitions Disney Channels EMEA, and leading Hollywood script consultant Pilar Alessandra, author of The Coffee Break Screenwriter.
The shortlisted projects was then evaluated by an panel which included Peter Lord, director of Chicken Run and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists; Hollywood writers Kiel Murray (Cars) and Jonathan Roberts (The Lion King), Walt Disney Company executives, comedian David Kau, screenwriter Paul Ian Johnson, and Triggerfish’s Anthony Silverston, Wayne Thornley and Raffaella Delle Donne.
The selected storytellers will start the new year with a two-week immersion trip to Disney’s headquarters in Burbank, California, where they will receive mentoring from key studio and television executives.
The Story Lab is a fantastic initiative but it’s odd that 6 out of the 8 selected projects are from south Africa. Being an Africa-wide competition, they should have given projects from other countries a chance.
The feature films selected into the Story Lab are:
- The Camel Racer – Wanuri Kahiu and Nnedi Okorafor (Kenya/Nigeria)
- Dropped – Ian Tucker (SA)
- Lights – Kay Carmichael (SA)
- The Wild Waste – Naseem Hoosen (SA)
The TV series selected into the Story Lab are:
- Bru and Boegie – Mike Scott (SA)
- KC’s Super 4 – Malenga Mulendema (Zambia)
- Ninja Princess – Marc Dey and Kelly Dillon (SA)
- Wormholes – Lucy Heavens (SA)