(bongo music)
- OK.
Action.
(suspenseful music)
(yelling and fighting)
In Wakaliwood we do action,
we do horror,
and we do African witchcraft.
(yells in foreign language)
We're always improvising here.
Whatever we feel like we want,
we do it.
(gunfire)
(suspenseful music)
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Wakaliga,
a slum in Uganda's capital of Kampala,
is home to a burgeoning, low-budget
DIY cinema industry called,
Wakaliwood.
Think action-packed comedies with shootouts,
car chases,
explosions,
zombies.
All with a shoestring budget.
- Wakaliwood is a name that comes from
the word Wakaliga,
where I grew up and where I am right now
and wood,
from the Hollywood because all movies
we knew were from Hollywood.
All set?
- [Actors] Yes!
- OK.
Action.
My name is Isaac Nabwana Godfrey Geoffrey,
the founder of Wakaliwood and the director here.
I do editing;
I do camera shootings.
Action.
And I write action movies.
I started making movies in 2005,
but the dream was back way in 1986.
Around that,
when I was a teenager.
- [Narrator] To date, Isaac has made over 40 movies,
most for nothing more that $200.
He is Wakaliwood's only director for now,
but people from all over have come
to support Wakaliwood in all kinds of ways.
- My name was Alan Hofmanis.
My name now in Uganda,
is Alan Ssali Owe Nkima Musajja Wakabaka
Ne Mafene Yesu Muganda Laptop Hofmanis.
So if you enjoy muzungu getting beaten,
wait til you see muzungu getting eaten.
(laughs)
- [Narrator] His actors aren't paid,
and most have side jobs ranging from teachers,
nurses and lawyers.
- I train my own.
I believe that everyone can be a star.
I get them from all over the country.
We welcome everyone because we feel like movies are family.
The props department is like a workshop
where we make everything we want which we cannot buy.
We can do our own lights;
we can do our own gib;
we can do our own dollies,
and everything.
The guns.
There's so many things we needed, and we cannot buy.
By improvising,
we make them in his workshop there.
(cocks gun)
I'm very good at, you know, using the little I have.
- [Narrator] His first film,
Who Killed Captain Alex?,
brought widespread attention to Wakaliwood.
After uploading it to YouTube,
it quickly went viral and gained a cult following worldwide.
- I knew no one had ever done an action movie in Africa,
so I knew if it goes out,
people will at least give it, you know, a chance.
Everyone loved it and Captain Alex became a hit.
- [Narrator] What started as a dream
that was borderline fantasy,
has turned into a full-fledged production house
that has gone mainstream.
(yells)
- I did not go to school to learn movies.
I don't know festivals;
I don't know awards.
When I make movies my main goal is for the people to enjoy.
When they watch them they will laugh because it is funny.
It was comedy to us, everything.
So I feel like life without, you know, laughing,
laughing without comedy is not life.