Togetherness Supreme

When people affirm to tell their own stories, a certain strength arises. To see Kenyan characters on-screen navigate their realities in our context creates a point of reference for us in our own lives where similar themes may be playing out.

Enter Kama (Wilson Maina) the protagonist, a young artist whose friendship with Oti (Geoffrey Jefferson Ong’ong’o) the hustler is challenged when they both fall for the same girl, Alice (Martha Kisaka) the preacher’s daughter. It is their long-standing friendship and political activity in common that keeps the young men in each other’s lives.

The film, released a decade ago, is set in Kibera slum in the year 2007 and the activity in the nation is buzzing with the busyness of an election year. On screen, posters are up and youth are mobilized to vote for the rival parties.

Kama, through his relationship with Oti, becomes involved with the youth organizing votes for the Orange Democratic Movement where he devotes his time to the mobilization of people and applies his artistic talents in designing party merchandise and creating campaign artwork. He and Oti create an alias for him as ‘John’ because the parties and their supporters are divided along ethnic lines.

The camera, in the hands of renowned cinematographer Andrew Mungai, is alive. It shifts as it weaves in and out of narrow passageways following the characters on their journeys. The captured images are inter-cut with archive footage of the violence that descended upon the slums following the elections. These images remain in the audience’s mind’s eye long after the film comes to a close.

This film, produced by Mercy Murugi and Pamela Collett, is of great production value with scenes that involve the masses, beautifully executed. It was no surprise when Togetherness Supreme won “Best International Film” at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2011. At the Vancouver International Film Festival, Togetherness Supreme was described as “Africa’s slumdog without the millionaires”, a comparison to Danny Boyle’s Oscar Winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008).

Directed by Nathan Collett ‘Togetherness Supreme’ is the first feature film shot entirely in Kibera. Hot Sun Productions, the lead company on this production, also ran an outfit known as Kibera Film School. The school, founded in 2009, produced some of the cast and crew for the film and provided scholarships for the local Kibera youth that helped usher several into the local and international workforce. They were trained in various departments by inviting filmmakers and other professionals for short visits to teach directing, producing, editing, writing, acting and sound.

Through this film and the story behind it, we see that filmmaking can be an extremely powerful tool in transforming the lives of societies, both in the craft of creating the film and in the consumption of it too. With stories such as ‘Togetherness Supreme’ making rounds across the globe, we can rest easy knowing we have a place in the digital archives of history.