Kenyan film

The cinema of Kenya refers to the film industry of Kenya. Although a very small industry in western comparison, Kenya has produced or been a location for film since the early 1950s when Men Against the Sun was filmed in 1952. Although, in the United States, jungle epics that were set in the country were shot in Hollywood as early as the 1940s.

Rather than featured films with fictional content, Kenya has mostly produced documentary films often relating the conditions of the people and poverty in the main cities of Kenya. Since 2000 feature films on DV technology production have increased in the country. They include Dangerous Affair, Project Daddy, and Money & the Cross by Njeri Karago, Babu's Babies by Christine Bala, Naliaka is Going by Albert Wandago, The Price of a Daughter and Behind Closed Doors by Jane Murago-Munene, The Green Card by Brutus Sirucha, Malooned by Bob Nyanja, All Girls Together by Cajetan Boy, Help by Robert Bresson and From a Whisper by Wanuri Kahiu, and Jitu Films movies: Mob Doc, R2 Security, Zeinabu Rudi Nyumbani, Chasing Moses, Selfish, Me, My Wife and Her Guru, Grave Yard and Through Hell; and The Hammer by Cezmiq Cast, and the banned horror film Otto the Bloodbath.

Feature films before 2000 include The Battle of the Sacred Tree (1995) by Wanjiru Kinyanjui which won several awards (OCIC and The Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame award in the US), Saikati and Saikati Enkabaani by Anne Mungai and Kolor Mask by Sao Gamba. Numerous short fictions are also on the increase such as Ras Star by Wanuri Kahiu, Subira by Kenya-based Indian film director Ravneet Sippy Chadha, Life in D Major by Angelo Kinyua, and Extracts of Me by William Owusu.

Other low-budget independent filmmakers using digital technology to shoot their films and sell them locally on DVD and VCD format have spawned the Riverwood Industry. Though it originally takes it name from River-road, the busy street where music tapes and electronics are sold, Riverwood is fast capturing the attention of the mainstream TV stations and pan-African broadcasters. Mburu Kimani's The Race earned an award at the inaugural Kalasha Awards (Kenya's TV and Film Awards) for "Best Riverwood Film". Other films in this genre include Simiyu Barasa's Toto Millionaire (2007), and numerous other vernacular films like Kihenjo and Machangi.

Films such as 2006's I Want to Be a Pilot relates an emotional tale of a young boy living in poverty in Nairobi who has dreams and aspirations of becoming an airline pilot and being set free from his life of hardship.

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