Does anyone know who has the theatrical rights to the South African film "A
Zulu On My Stoep" ? I met recently with the head of the 20th Century Fox
theaters in Nairobi and he asked if I knew how he could get that film to
show.
=========
FYI. The theatrical market has improved markedly in Kenya. Fox Theaters
were showing "Apollo 13" when I was there. They have been able to
renegotiate a deal with UIP in London and are again getting Hollywood
pictures. Audiences are coming back to theaters, and they are even thinking
maybe of opening a new theater.
When I first met Anil Kapila (head of Fox and a great fellow) a couple years
ago, he told of the Kenyan theatrical industry dying as they couldn't get
good films and the theaters were not being well maintained and audience
levels dropping - a classic negative spiral. Most of it was due to
irregularities being carried out by the parastatal Kenya Film Corporation.
I know the KFC well, as they swindled us out of any payment for "Neria"
theatrical showings - after two years we were lucky to get the beat up 35mm
print back and about $300 - enough to pay our lawyer. After the first month
of showings they owed us $1,000, but it never came. Anyhow, KFC is in
liquidation now.
Fox is open to playing African product, but it is hard to find product that
their audiences will like. They have shown "Neria" (albeit it was second
hand after KFC had it for 2 years), "JIT" a comedy that did fair, and "More
Time" that did really well.
In-Reply-To: 199603211841.NAA02131@dag.XC.Org