The idea of Sinema Safari Africa
The Genesis of the first ever Africa chapter of the biggest gathering of young filmmakers in the world dubbed Cinemadamare Africa Chapter (now Sinema Safari Africa) began in 2014 back when Samuel Oluoko, the projects Coordinator-G-PAY landed an opportunity to participate in a film making program in Italy organised by Associazione Culturale Cinemadamare that is run by the director Francesco Rina a renowned journalist in Italy.This was the very first time that a Participant from Africa joined this amazing program 12 years since the program started.
Samuel Oluoko was so amazed at the impact the program made in his filmmaking career and the kind of exposure and networks this whole experience made .
He then managed to secure a meeting with the director Mr. Francesco Rina to discuss a possible MoU that among other things was to grant GPAY an opportunity to have 10 young passionate filmmakers participate in this program every year .The proposed MoU also outlined the desire to see this program run in Africa-Kenya with GPAY taking the lead in rallying the relevant stakeholders in Kenya to see the successful implementation of this program in 2019.
Sinema Safari Africa Launch in Nairobi
International participants started arriving on 8th Nov.2019. Accommodation facility for Nairobi was at the Railways Training Institute-RTI where all participants stayed. The VIPs were accommodated at the concord Hotel. On 12th November 2019, Cinemadamare Africa Chapter 2019 was officially launched in Nairobi, Kenya at the University of Nairobi main campus. This pilot edition offered young film makers opportunities to make films together as they traverse the five selected counties every week