By Valentine Marc Nkwame

Arusha has debuted in Uganda’s Amakula Film Festival 2007 with a ‘movie with a difference!’ It is a documentary flick on ... well... poetry. The film entitled ‘The power of poetry!’ Starring one ‘MC Black’ a rapper from Kenya (but who currently lives here). It is a maiden production work from the Arusha- based, National Film Company.

‘The Power of Poetry’ may not seem to be an attractive title, but the film itself is quite captivating, or at least it was, when the NFC director, Anwar Msechu played the first raw copy of the documentary on his Toshiba notebook, at The Arusha Times offices, where it drew close all staff and a number of visitors to take a peek.

Charlotte Hill O’Neal of the Maji-ya-Chai based, United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC) who stars in the documentary sums it up in the movie; "Hip-Hop is the poetry of today!". Indeed, MC Black, who grew up in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, belts the verses in Hip-hop style. The MC also happens to be the fronts man of the ‘Warriors from East’ a Kenyan rap group.

The ‘Power Of Poetry’ will also be screened at the forthcoming Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) to be staged in the isles as from next month, after which the producers intend to release DVD copies for commercial distribution, but mostly abroad because the ‘Poetry’ theme may not exactly attract many people locally.

At least not yet. However, the NFC people intend to change the notion that local people should just be fed with bubble-gum pop films such as the shallow local movies that are being produced today. "Our company intends to solely deal with serious documentaries with educative material." Insisted Msechu, adding that, slowly, people here will realize such importance and go for documentaries.

The newly established, National Film Company, is made up of several local youths who intend to revolutionize the film industry in the country. These are, Timothy Shirima, Anwar Msechu, Samuel Obare and Sudi Abdallah, all residents of Arusha. There is also, Hajji Mjaya who resides in Dar-es-salaam.

Documentaries apparently, are not new things to the NFC team. "We helped to produce the documentary about the Warangi ethnic group culture with their Coral painting for the National Geographic, " they said. In fact even their follow- up production to be called ‘Relevance’ about Hip-Hop in East Africa, is being done for the National Geographic Channel.

But what does the future hold for NFC a yet to be fully established film firm? "At the moment we are operating from a home studio. We intend to set up a fully -fledged studio and later, form a special film and acting school." They said. With such plans, maybe somebody will also be making a special documentary on them in future.