The Director's Story UMHC: EP1-KITEEZI

PRE-PRODUCTION: The Script

Script writing is one of the most underrated activities in the film production process. A long and tedious process. However, the presence or absence of a good script determines whether you run around in scattered activities, or move smoothly from one stage of production to the next. A script is basically the blueprint and cornerstone for the whole film.

A good script can determine whether your film has longevity, or if it’s something people will be entertained by and then forget the next minute. With "Uganda's mental health climate", it was like finding a needle in a haystack, because I didn't know much about climate change.

I had to rely on colleagues in the industry who had danced with the subject skilfully, and Alex Taremwa my OB and a sage on the climate change topic, was gracious enough to give me a baseline that started me off in building this story. He can attest to the fact that the first concept note I shared with him is not what finally materialised in the film.

In building the concept, I went through various canvases. At first, the working title was "Silent Storms", then it became "Mbarara's Broken Promises", and eventually we docked on Uganda's Mental Health Climate.

My biggest concern in it all was: how do I make people care about this film? What is going to be my entry point into the hearts and minds of people, especially because this is a subject many have relegated to the West?

When Kiteezi happened, it was tragic, but considering it as a viable storyline for the documentary didn't cross my mind until much later, because the documentary was meant to cover Uganda as a whole.

However, after months of applying for funding and waiting for callbacks, and no funding came through, we resolved to tell the story with the resources available. That's when the idea of profiling Kampala alone, and her climate change failings, came through, and looking throughout Kampala, Kiteezi couldn't be ignored.

The north star in all this was to tell a story that details the psychological impact of climate change on people in Uganda. How we got there could be flexible as long as the message came out clearly.

Moving from looking at Uganda as a whole, to just Kampala, was a big creative hurdle for me. It was easy to look at Bududa, River Nyamwamba, etc...because these were well documented climate change tragedies in Uganda. However, focusing on Kampala alone seemed quite a stretch.

I can tell you this, much of what you see in the final film was realised on the editing timeline. This documentary was both scripted and unscripted. At the end of it all, I can say I am much wiser regarding the issues of climate change and mental health, and I am grateful.