Homages: Cajetan Boy, Feb 10-11 2012 @ Goethe-Institut

Kenyan Film is making big strides, but many of its protagonists are not well known, not even in Kenya. It’s time to pay homage to their works. This series at the Goethe-Institut paid homage to  Jacob Barua, Judy Kibinge, Willie Owusu, and Jane Murago-Munene. It now continues with another major protagonist: Cajetan Boy.

Cajetan Boy is a playwright, screenwriter, lecturer in screenwriting, performing artist, and the Products Development Leader for Et Cetera Productions Limited, an independent film and TV production house. His first full-length play was Benta (2000) which was published and later produced as a feature film in 2006. Many of his stage plays have also been produced as feature films.

Other than film and stage, he has written extensively for Comic Books, Radio, and TV, i.e. several episodes of dramas, soaps and sit-coms. As usual in this series, a representative selection of his corpus of work will be screened, and accompanied by a discussion with the filmmaker.

Screenings: Friday, 10th February 2012, 4.00 pm & Saturday, 11th February 2012, 3.00 pm
At the Goethe-Institut Nairobi, Free Entrance
info: +254 (0) 20 222 4640, info@nairobi.goethe.org

TEDxBraeburnSchools, Feb 11 2012 @ Austin Room, Braeburn School

This TEDx event gives parents, teachers, students and the larger community a glimpse into our collective future and a space to engage in open, exploratory dialogue, to understand the world our children will live in and to explore creative ways to adapt to it.

Every Saturday (except the last Saturday of the month), from 10:00 (for 10:30) to 12pm we will be showing two videos of talks from the renowned TED conferences followed by a casual discussion.

This Saturday, February 11th, the following TED talks will be screened:

Talk 1: Jonathan Haidt: The Moral Mind (http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html) 18Mins
Talk 2: Diane Benscoter: How Cults Think (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ex_moonie_diane_benscoter_how_cults_think.html) 6Mins
Talk 3: Nate Garvis: Change our culture, change our world (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/nate_garvis_change_our_culture_change_our_world.html) 10Mins

Movie + Dinner: The Story of Lovers Rock, Feb 11 2012 @ Sarakasi Dome

Movie only – 500ksh
Exclusive Valentine’s dinner afterwards – 3000ksh per couple

Lovers Rock, often dubbed ‘romantic reggae’ is a uniquely black British sound that developed in the late 70s and 80s against a backdrop of riots, racial tension and sound systems. Live performance, comedy sketches, dance, interviews and archive shed light on the music and the generation that embraced it. Lovers Rock allowed young people to experience intimacy and healing through dance- known as ‘scrubbing’- at parties and clubs. This dance provided a coping mechanism for what was happening on the streets. Lovers Rock developed into a successful sound with national UK hits and was influential to British bands (Police, Culture Club, UB40) these influences underline the impact the music was making in bridging the multi-cultural gap that polarized the times. The film sheds light on a forgotten period of British music, social and political history.
The Story of Lovers Rock is a feature length documentary containing interviews, comedy sketches, dance, live performances and archive footage which are used to shed light on the music and the generation that embraced it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uyJwZwkqg8U]

 

Documentary Screening: Laikipia, the Land of Life, Feb. 23 2012 @ Italian Cultural Institute


Directed by Giuseppe Bucciarelli (who will be present for the occasion) and produced by Laikipia Wildlife Forum

Where: At the Italian Institute of Culture – Michelangelo Hall
When: on Thursday, 23rd February 2012 at 7.00pm.

Free entry

There is a place in Africa where a mountain meets the sky… A place where rivers, forests and savannas play a never-ending game with people. This place is Laikipia, central Kenya. Here dangerous wildlife shares the land with thousands of farmers and their livestock. A perfect combination for trouble… But despite all odds the people living in Laikipia are doing their best to make a dream come true: in this region of Kenya co-existence between the needs of humans and the necessities of wildlife is a well established and solid reality. Follow Max Graham, an elephant researcher, while he tracks down the giants of the savannah using an innovative SIM card device to stop pachyderms from raiding farmers’ crops. Join Anthony King, a renowned Kenyan conservationist, in his fight to stop land degradation and erosion in the Laikipia region. Meet the Maasai people while trying to bridge the gap between their tribal traditions and a modern cash economy.
The documentary “Laikipia, the Land of Life” shows the reality of modern Africa and brings to the world the voices of the people living in an entire region of the continent who are contributing in the creation of a successful conservation model in a fast-changing world.

Giuseppe Bucciarelli is a biologist with more than ten years of research experience in molecular biology, genetic fish population, speciation, foreign species invasion and genome evolution.
For three years (2002 – 2005) he lived on board his yacht “Maruzza”, sailing the Mediterranean from Corsica to the Suez Canal ending in the Middle East where he spent several months travelling in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. He spent the winter months of these years between North Africa, the Pacific Ocean and the southern regions of Venezuela where he explored the cultures spreading along the Orinoco and Rio Negro rivers. Those inspiring experiences led him to film making. As a consequence he produced and directed the multi-awarded documentary “Ahmed and the Return of the Arab Phoenix”. He now lives in Kenya as an independent film maker, making documentaries on conservation-related issues.

Tango: Valentine’s Day Milonga, Feb. 14 2012 @ TreeHouse

An evening soaked with the ultimate of romantic music… let the darkness of the Nairobi night, and your lovestruck hearts, be pierced by the plaintive wailing of the bandoneón… what better way to spend Valentine’s Day this coming Tuesday 14 February 2012?

From 7:30 pm till late, at the Tree House Restaurant (previously known as Toona Tree) at the old International Casino Complex, off Westlands Rd just above Museum Hill, a fabulous space for a romantic dinner for you and your loved one… a special edition of the weekly Milonga Patamango, 4 hours of non-stop superlatively romantic tango music, selected con mucho gusto by DJ Mario, and delivered over an excellent sound system for your listening and dancing pleasure… a sumptuous playlist to listen to till the end, cause you know not the hour that happiness will come…

La Milonga Patamango — the only tango milonga between Cairo and Johannesburg — is proudly offered to you by the non-profit Patamango Association for Argentine Tango. Please always check the Patamango website for any schedule changes.

Free Entrance

for more info:

Nairobi Tango
nairobi.tango@patamango.com
+254 715 357 507
http://www.patamango.com/milonga-patamango