Kenya's movie industry struggles to survive amid pandemic

Brilliant names like Lupita Nyongo and Eddie Gathegi already hovering high in Hollywood, Kenyan movie enterprise is a powerhouse in the area that rakes in thousands and thousands of dollars in terms of revenue.

Similar to in different international locations, the enterprise suffered a chief setback when lockdowns and regulations on public gatherings have been put in location with the aid of the government as part of the containment measures for the spread of Covid-19.

"So I shot two films, Isiiro which is a Luhya film, and Tipo which is a Luo film and with the pandemic, everything went to a halt," Joyce Indiegu, a film producer revealed.

Movie production on process. Credit: AfricaNews

The state of affairs was so dire and had some distance-attaining implications for each the filmmakers and the actors.

Felix Kamau, a director of photography lamented the imposed curfew for the low manufacturing.

"Curfew made it hard for us to achieve what we wanted, projects couldn’t run as planned," he said.

Another actor by the name Tana Muse said, "I am not going to lie. It was a very hard time for me, but the moment the country was opened I had a few opportunities but again very slim."

There had been efforts to assist the industry players during the lockdown but the stakeholders maintain that it wasn’t sustainable

The Kenya Film Commission once more came up with a concept of seeking to help the filmmakers via developing a fund however when you speak innovative it's far wide so whatever they attempted to help out didn’t attain anybody.

In spite of the reality that Video on call for structures are offering alternative methods of distributing movies, Kenyan content material creators are still hesitant approximately trying the streaming websites that allows you to earn more.

"Do we now go to streaming sites that are also not favourable because you find some give you 40% and take 60% but you do all the work and you pay the tax too on your 40%?" Joyce asked.

As Kenya's authorities is but to lift the regulations on public gatherings, the sustainability of the film enterprise will depend upon how revolutionary the players end up.