FUTURE HOME OF KIBIRAFILMS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Finally, the headquarters of Kibirafilms international is underway. It will be part of the plaza that is being built in Bukoba. The complex will include various businesses which will include a modern theater, a recording studio and other businesses intending to accentuate the future of Bukoba relative to being near the center of the new East African community. This has been our dream for many years but we think right now is the right time for it. It has been about 4 months since ground breaking. Below are some of the construction progress. Bukoba is located in Tanzania East Africa. The region borders Uganda and Rwanda

HAPPY NEW YEAR

From KibiraFilms International, we wish you a prosperous New Year.
We are very excited for the new year because we have many new projects lined up.

By the end of February, we will be releasing a documentary titled "Bishop Kibira of Bukoba"...An African Lutheran. He was the first black to be elected president of the Lutheran World Federation in 1977. He is from Tanzania.

Keep visiting our website for the details.

Then we will release another documentary Two Africas in America. We have been working on these projects for over 2 years and we hope to complete both of them this year.

Please keep supporting us in the coming year.

Peace

African Global Roots Arts Festival July 25th

African Global Roots Arts Festival

Saturday July 25th, 2009

Program Outline

Ramada - Grand Rios Hotel 6900 Lakeland Avenue North, Brooklyn park

6:00pm - 7:00pm - Registration, Handout program and Newsletter...

7:00pm - 7:30pm - Opening Acts: (Host Linda Obel)

- T.R Mayes Singer/Song writer & Model

- Mukama Morandi, Music Video "African Girl/Mpenzi Wangu”

7:30pm – 7:45pm - Welcome and Program Introduction (Linda Obel)

7:45pm - 8:15pm - Opening remarks: (Ibe Kaba)

- A poem from the book: "Bridge Across the Atlantic"

- A few words on AGR's History & Mission

- The Role of local Media, on the African arts and artists

8:15pm – 8:45pm - AGR Honors Local Media Organizations (Linda Obel)

- African News Journal, Bashe Said

"Two Communities, One Newspaper"

- Mshale News, Tom Gitta

"The African Community Newspaper"

8:45pm - 9:00pm - About Artists Recognition, Fashion & Dance (Nneka Onyilofor)

- On the recognition of the artists

- On the Fashion & Designers

- On the Music, Dance & Poetry show

9:00pm - 9:30pm - Honor & Recognition of the Artists (Linda Obel)

- Artist Siama Matuzungidi - Music Video & Speech

- Film maker Josiah Kibira - Documentary Video & Speech

- Artist Innocent - Music Video & Special recognition

9:30pm - 11:30pm - The Show Begins...(Linda Obel)

- Hayor Bibimma, African Dance Company

- Damion Rhudd - Jamaican Poet

- M.anifest - Ghanaian Artist

- 1st Segment Fashion Show

Utamaduniwear, represented by Eva Githina

- The Belly Dance show, by Shadia Ouma

Performing artist, Shadia Ouma

2nd Segment Fashion Show

Nyamal B. Dol - Designer & Founder

11:30pm - 12:00Midnight: DJ

- Joe Waruimbo - Soljams Entertainment

Josiah Kibira: One film at a time

May 11th, 2009 - ANJ Online

From Tanzania to Kansas, comes a man on a mission to change the international film industry, one film at a time.

By: Nneka Onyilofor

Josiah Kibira is that man; the man that came to the U.S. to attend school at Bethany College in Kansas, and ended up founding his own production company, Kibira Films. For more than 20 years in the U.S., Josiah dreamed big, and turned those dreams into reality. By day he’s a software testing engineer, but during the rest of his life, he’s a writer, director, and producer. And it all began with an interest he had in writing scripts as he exercised this interest while he was in college. After college, he moved to Minnesota and began to recruit actors from local Twin Cities colleges and Universities for his first film titled, “Bongoland.” 

Many Tanzanian’s may recognize the term “Bongo,” as it is a slang term for the country itself. However, Josiah added a spin to the title of his first featured film by calling it, “Bongoland,” which he describes as a more inclusive term.
Bongoland was produced in 2003, which is a film about an immigrant who comes to the U.S. to look for opportunities and runs into a lot of issues that many immigrants can relate to. In this film, the main character makes a decision that brought about the film Bongoland II in 2007. With the support of UCLA, Josiah’s first film proved to be a success in a unique fashion. This uniqueness comes from the fact that both films are spoken in the Swahili language. 

Josiah was motivated to do these films in Swahili because there was a lack of movies in this language that is spoken so widely in Africa and in the U.S. Bongoland was performed in about 60 percent Swahili, and in Bongoland II, Swahili was spoken throughout the entire film; 100 percent of the time.  

“There are so many things that have to be done that are not known…Africa is full of those people that did great things but it’s only the Edi Amen’s that get the lime light.” There are so many things that are particular to Africa that Hollywood is not interested in,” stated Josiah. Thus, in 2005, Josiah produced a film titled, “Tusamehe,” which means forgiveness, and is about the AIDS epidemic. Swahili is spoken in about 70 percent of this film as well. 

So what else can be said about Josiah Kibira? We’ll, his next goal is to continue to break down more barriers. “When you are in Africa, African Americans are looked at as heroes and when I got here, that’s what I was expecting. I was expecting my brothers to embrace me, but it was different,” he stated. This reality is going to open up a dialogue about the relationship between Africans and African Americans in the U.S. in Josiah’s upcoming documentary titled, “Two Africas in America.

” The ultimate goal of this documentary is to dispel the myths that both cultures have about the other and to begin the healing process that is well needed.
Currently Josiah is marketing and promoting his films at film festivals in the U.S., UK, and Tanzania. His films have already been featured in various film festivals including the Pan-African film festival in Los Angeles. 

“Most of the movies I do are very male centered…you need to find something that is female centered people told me.” Thus, a film 
that many women can relate to is another project Josiah is working on in addition to his upcoming documentary. 

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For more information you can email info@kibirafilms.com or go to www.kibirafilms.com. Look out for a preview of Josiah Kibira’s new documentary at the African Global Roots Art Festival on July 25th, 2009 from 5pm-midnight at the Grand Rios Ramada Hotel in Brooklyn Park, MN.