Eastmond Mwenda

Fast-rising filmmaker Eastmond Mwenda's The Case is among films nominated for the 2020 Kalasha International TV and Film Awards.

The annual award show celebrates exceptional talent in the film and TV industry. This year's call for submissions attracted 1,036 entries.

The Case was nominated in the 'Best Student Film' category under special awards.

Written and directed by Eastmond Mwenda with screenplay from Hinga Mwonjoria, the action-packed short film stars Amro Mohammed, Fred Owawo, Paminas Omondi and Riccardo S. Waruinge.

In a conversation with Loud.co.ke on Friday, November 20, Mwenda revealed that the film was shot in Makueni County as part of the 19th edition of CinemaDare - Africa Chapter.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/382807219
The Case

CinemaDare, a travelling campus, is considered the largest gathering of young filmmakers in the world.

It brings together over 300 participants from 65 countries every year to work together on every stage of film production.

The Case will be up for the award against Moses Mwathi's Reverie and Brian Bwire's Stocoma.

Eastmond revealed that several people involved in the making of The Case were paricipants in the CinemaDare program.

"We travelled to different parts of the country as part of the program but we shot the film in Makueni.

"We collaborated, for example the main actor (Amro Mohammed) is a Judo champion in Sudan while our make-up artist (Julija Janeliunaite) was from Lithuania," he disclosed.

Public voting for the Kalasha Awards, sponsored by Startimes, ends on December 3.

Public voting constitutes 30% of the total vote while the Jury vote constitutes 70%. The awards show is set for December 12, 2020.

You can vote for The Case on Startimes ON here, with the category placed under 'Special Awards'.

Aside from The Case, Mwenda has been busy with his production company, TBE Productions.

Notably, the production house this year launched the Serenade Sessions live music series featuring performances from artists based at the Coast.

Mwenda noted that the Covid-19 pandemic had forced film-makers to come up with new ideas and new ways of doing things.

"It's been tough but we've been doing various things including commercials.

"We also have Serenade Sessions which was meant to promote local artists. At the same time it was helping talented artists access quality video and audio production which they otherwise couldn't afford," he noted.