Check out our exclusive interview with NBC Universal Film Festival Finalist and Writer/Director of “Kyenvu” Kemiyondo Coutinho.
Kemiyondo Coutinho, writer and director of Kyenvu, has been making waves recently with her new movie; winning festival awards and receiving high acclaim critically. Most recently, Kemiyondo was a finalist at the NBC Universal Short Film Festival and has won the Harness Social Impact Award! As a first time director, her film takes place in Uganda and tackles the recent mini-skirt ban that was passed into Ugandan law and explores many topics like cultural identity, love, and sexual assault. We got a chance to speak with her to talk about her experiences making the movie and some of the ideas she explored in the film.
Kemiyondo Coutinho at the NBC Universal Short Film Festival Red Carpet
The Knockturnal: This is your first time directing, could you talk about your experiences being a director?
Kemiyondo Coutinho: I think that the main thing is, I always thought I couldn’t be a director. Growing up, I’ve never seen a black female director, I’ve never seen an African female director, and I think, in some ways, that kind of closed my mind to the possibility of being a director. So even when I wrote the film, I didn’t plan to direct it. It’s not like I wrote this to direct it, I wrote it for someone else to direct it. Ashamedly, I wrote it for a man to direct it, a director I’ve worked with before. He kept getting a gig and we kept pushing the schedule, so three days before this particular schedule he got a gig with CNN and I was just like; “You can’t not take the CNN gig. Take the gig.” And he said, “But you need a director.” And I was like; “Don’t worry I’ll find one, I’ll find one.” And then, pretty much I was like “Oh sh*t, I guess I have to direct this as well.” And so for three days, I was just reading everything I could, looking at all of these interviews, and pretty much just gearing myself up to direct. But I think that because I couldn’t overthink everything, because I only had three days to go into it, I think that in some ways it was an experience I’ll never have again because, you know, ignorance is bliss. I was just like, this is what feels right, and so I almost think that it will probably be the best of directing I’ll ever have because everything after that I overthink. But I think that it was important for me to do it because I know that I can, and it elicited a different type of itch in my artistic ventures and I saw the power a female has behind the camera, and how that is different from being in front of the camera. So, even with the final scene where there is nudity, a lot of people say “Oh, how did you feel about that?” I was like “I felt very comfortable because I knew how I was being seen in the scene because I was the director.” And it was in that moment that I realized why it was important for females to be directors because it was not so much as how you’re being portrayed, but how you’re being seen.
The Knockturnal: I read that you didn’t know anyone in the Ugandan film scene besides one person, and was connected through him to assemble a team. What was that process like?
Kemiyondo Coutinho: Again, another ignorance is bliss thing. I was determined to a have a film that had a fully, 100% cast and crew that was Ugandan. And I didn’t know if that was possible, but I felt that it must be possible, I know that there must be talented people. And so I basically knew one person, who was the (to be) director, and I was would simply just ask “who is the best editor in Uganda?” and he would point me to that person. And then I would have lunch with that person and tell them “I have no money, but I have the script and I need someone to come in.” And he read the script and fell in love with the script. And he’s like it “I’m on it!” And then I was like “who is the best sound person?”, and that’s literally how I assembled the whole crew, I just asked: “who is the best in this field?”. I was also very aware that it was my first time and I needed people who were more experienced than me to be on the set. So I assembled this crew that, some of them had never even worked with each other, because a lot of times what you have in Uganda, half the crew will be Ugandan and they bring in another half in way to say that “oh we are professional, we have an American director or an English director or a Kenyan director”. And so it was a really special experience for them and myself. It was just Ugandan. If you want to bring in someone, that’s okay, but that’s a choice, it’s not a necessity to make something professional.
Shooting Kyenvu in Uganda with an all Ugandan cast and crew.
Picture Credit: Kyenvu Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/kyenvuthemovie/
The Knockturnal: You touch on a lot of topics in the film, from identity and culture to blossoming love to sexual abuse and safety for women. Can you go into detail about some of those topics you explored?
Kemiyondo Coutinho: So I guess the way I start writing, there is a burning issue I want to discuss. So that burning issue was sexual harassment, because, at that time, Uganda had banned mini-skirts because of sexual harassment. What that does is it’s victim blaming, because you’re saying “oh okay, there’s sexual harassment coming and that will stop it.” That’s not really the best idea or even the second best idea. So that was the first thing I wanted to use to discuss; like how victim blaming is terrible and how these laws that you’ve made actually affect people on the ground, as we are seeing in the States, as we are seeing in Uganda, as we are seeing everywhere. So I wanted to discuss that. But one thing that I really despise when people come in and do films about the continent, is a lot of times they cloud the narrative with the theme. So, if it’s about sexual harassment, the first two minutes she’s being sexually harassed, throughout the film she is being sexually harassed, and I think that what that does is it makes it seem that these countries are full of this one particular theme, which is not true. And that’s not life. It would be like someone coming to film about America and it’s just Trump, Trump, Trump. That’s not my life in America. So I knew that I wanted to color it with more than that. So when I was writing it, I knew the final scene and I didn’t know how I was going to get to the final scene. I’ve never done a story set in Uganda, so I started to think “where does romance happen in Uganda?”, and because this particular atrocity happened to my friend at a taxi stop, I was already thinking of a taxi stop. So I knew I wanted a taxi stop, and I knew that with a taxi, you can explore a range of classes. So Uganda it’s interesting because the classes always combine. It’s not like America where, like, the rich don’t really interact with the poor. In Uganda, everyone is in a taxi. So you can really have a really rich person, a middle-class person, and a person who doesn’t know when their next meal is coming, all in the same taxi. And places like that really inspire me because I think that you can get a lot about a world in those small places. So I wanted to explore that. And then, I knew that I was going to play the role when I wrote it, so I knew that I sound different from Ugandans, I look different Ugandans, and I as Kemiyondo struggle with identity. And so, for me, I always believe in presenting truth no matter how uncomfortable it is. And so that is where the exploration of identity is, where I feel Ugandan, but other people probably don’t think so, and what does that do? And all of this is remnants of colonization; so you have colorism in there, you have tribalism in there, you have the notion that speaking English is better than speaking your mother’s tongue and I wanted to explore that whole world. But I also wanted to show that, you know, just like every other place, there is love, there is humor, there is hope, and so that’s where that love story was important to me. I think that love, to me, is most powerful because everyone experiences love, everyone wants love, everyone has their relationship with love. And so whether you are British, whether you are American, when you watch that love story, you can identify with that character. She is no longer Ugandan, she is just a girl, like you. He is no longer Ugandan, he is just a guy, like you. So that is why making it a love story was very important. And why I didn’t foreshadow the rape scene, is because I feel like life does not foreshadow tragedy. You cannot rehearse for tragedy. So it was important for me that that wasn’t foreshadowed, because that is where blaming comes from like “Oh why didn’t you do that? Why didn’t you do that?” No, actually no one is prepared, you’re just living your life and tragedy happens.
Kemiyondo Coutinho and Michael Wawuyo Jr. in the taxi scene in “Kyenvu”
Picture Credit: IMDB
The Knockturnal: What are your thoughts on the movement against sexual assault and women’s rights with #MeToo and the subsequent outings of many perpetrators in Hollywood and elsewhere? Are there aspects that still need a light shined upon?
Kemiyondo Coutinho: I think for me, and I explored this a bit in the film, but I think we need to have a discussion on what an ally is because I think a lot of the time when these conversations happen, people freeze. So you have men who are like “oh I’m not a rapist, sorry.” And they freeze because they don’t want to speak because they’re afraid that they’ll say something offensive and they’re too afraid to call out their fellow people and they just become a bystander. I think it’s important we discuss what’s an ally. So, for me, that’s what I was exploring in the final scene. When he gets into the shower and starts washing her mini-skirt, to me that’s being an ally. When he’s sitting outside the shower and telling her what to do, that’s being a bystander. And so, I think, what we have to realize is that being an ally requires a lot of uncomfortability. It requires you to have that uncomfortable conversation, it requires you to put yourself into positions that you aren’t used to. And you might say something wrong, but until you start having those conversations with women until you start conversations with fellow men, you’re really just a bystander. So for me I just think, one thing that Kyenvu does in this conversation with #MeToo and #TimesUp, is that let’s start having those conversations, let’s start advocating for allies as opposed to bystanders. Because I think that’s truly what’s going to change the culture. It needs men to call out other men. It doesn’t need women to just be protesting all the time. Because I think, a lot of times we think that feminism is just for women, but it’s not, it’s for everyone. We saw that with Apartheid, we saw that with slavery, it’s not just for black people to solve the issue, they needed allies. And what allies were people who put themselves in those uncomfortable positions and they were willing to change them with them. And so I think that with #MeToo and #TimesUp I would love to see a focus and people raising themselves up to be allies instead of bystanders.
The Knockturnal: Lastly, what’s coming up next for you and the movie after the festival? Also, do you have any plans for another movie?
Kemiyondo Coutinho: Right now I have written a short film about colonization, it’s a comedy satire horror, and I love it so much that I think I am going to develop it into my first feature, and so that’s what I’ve been working on a lot right now. I’m writing another feature, hopefully, the second feature is a biopic of one of the first trans men to come out in Uganda. So a lot of the stories will still deal with identity and where we are and why we are here. My hope is that the festival opens up opportunities for funding for these films.
