Monday morning at the Great Lakes Film Production company in the Ugandan capital Kampala. Ellen Görlich is discussing a new project with her team of young film makers -- who is going to operate the camera, who will look after the sound and, above all, how safe is the route to the location. That's not a question that Ellen Görlich would have had to worry about back in Germany. She worked for fifteen years in Frankfurt for one of Germany's most renowned film production companies, Neue Sentimentale Film, which boasts customers such as Steffi Graf and Adidas. It was a job where one adrenaline rush chased the next, but the giddy heights of stardom tended to go to some people's heads. With a shudder Ellen Görlich also recalls the absurdities of advertising such as casting models for an underwear campaign: lots of naked pale men!

"we went to work in the slums of Cape Town"
When the corporate craze for motivation courses swept across the Atlantic to Germany in the 1990s, Neue Sentimentale Fim was one of the first in the film industry to launch team building programmes. But instead of submitting its staff to the rigours of the Bavarian forest for survival training, or to an immersion course in Spanish on Majorca, Neue Sentimentale sent them to Cape Town, where they worked in the poverty-stricken townships for a month. It was an unusual scheme, but it proved a great success with the film production staff and the training course was promptly repeated on a larger scale. "Other companies were offering tuition in English, we went to work in the slums of Cape Town" says Ellen Görlich (photo right, centre). Somehow they decided to start helping African film makers. "Not to impose our way of seeing things on Africans, but rather to let ourselves be inspired by new ideas, to a find a new film language that would be fun to use", she says.

"..too emotional when dealing with my staff"

This was how Great Lakes Film Production company was born in Kampala, the green and temperate capital of Uganda. Assistance was provided by the GTZ - deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit - a German government-owned corporation that supports development projects in more than 130 countries. The GTZ committed itself to backing the company under the condition that Great Lakes found a Ugandan business partner. That associate turned out to be unsuitable, but at the time they were glad to have found anybody in Uganda's small film and television industry. Great Lakes was officially launched in March 2002 and Ellen Görlich soon realised how difficult it can be getting anything off the ground in Africa.

Two year later, the logistical problems have been more less resolved, but the cultural differences remain. "I am far too emotional when dealing with my staff", says this German filmmaker in her mid-forties. "They don't want emotional outbursts, they want clear instructions. And they won't open up to me - I have no idea what they are thinking behind those impassive faces".

There are also technical problems. "There is no film industry infrastructure here. In Europe, you can go out and hire a cameraman or a sound technician - here we even have to train the caterers. Finding props is another problem. "Uganda has no filmmaking tradition", says Ellen Görlich, "so there is nobody here who has any experience in such matters".

"We learnt a lot from the Germans

"
To help train the aspiring young film directors, camera women and lighting technicians, Ellen Görlich recruited two film professionals from Germany for six months. An experience that Winnie Ganisha, one of the three women on the team, will not easily forget. "We worked hard for seven, eight hours. For some of our actors, the pace was just too much. One of the film professionals - Alex - had so much stamina, we thought he was on drugs!" says Winnie with a big smile. "It was tough, but very interesting": Steve Nyeko, who directed the company first's big film, agrees. "Lighting and sound are catastrophic in Uganda. We learnt a lot from the Germans".

Ugandan films slower than European ones
This morning Steve, Rose and Phillip are in the cutting room working on the rough cut of a film they are producing for the Ugandan Ministry for Energy. With twenty two days of location shooting and a final duration of fifty five minutes, this is the longest and most expensive domestic feature film that has ever been produced in Uganda. The message the Energy Ministry' want to get across is that if you have two girlfriends, you're going to need more energy than if you have just one! A story line full of love, hate and jealousy aims to bring this point home. The young Ugandan filmmakers wrote the story themselves, but when editing it on the screen, Steve and Rose are only too happy to take advice from the German film professionals. "Ugandan films are far, far slower than European ones", Steve complains. "You cut quickly from one shot to the next. In our films, the camera stays on the same shot for an eternity. You pack a hundred things into one sentence. We have to repeat things until everybody has understood what's being said". If you've seen the way Ugandan films remorselessly hammer their message home, you can only agree with what Steve says.

Moments of happiness

Meanwhile Ellen is on the phone again. Their Ugandan associate is causing trouble and a lawyer will have to be called in. Then the car refuses to start.

These are of the moments of frustration. But they are becoming less frequent. Moments of happiness now tend to prevail. "I am happy when I have the feeling that I have learnt something new, or when I am at peace with the problems that surround me" says Ellen. "And, of course, when somebody says 'those are wonderful films you're making'. Or, when I see that my crew of nine (including cameraman Keefa, above) are getting along and working well together in spite of their very different personalities - those are small moments of happiness. I'll have to make do with them until the big ones come along - such as winning a prize at a festival.

Premier in Kampala
Great Lakes has yet to pick up a Golden Palm. But word of the professional camerawork done by the young Ugandan filmmakers has got around. They have already delivered material for a German public service television station, SWR Stuttgart and the commissioning producer was very satisfied. "That made me very happy" says Ellen Görlich. Basking in praise from Germany Winnie Ganisha appears equally cheerful. The 55 minute film about energy is going to have its premier in a cinema in Kampala in January. "I want to revolutionise film in Uganda" she says brimming with confidence.

A great challenge

As for Ellen Görlich: the filmmaker, who describes herself as "more German than German" and loves cosy pubs in her native Frankfurt and autumn mornings dripping with dew, is in Africa battling with dead telephone lines, power cuts and new furniture delivered without legs. She works not with Steffi Graf, but with amateur Ugandan actors. Doesn't she miss the glamour of the European film world, that rush of adrenaline? "No, certainly not", she says with a laugh. "The work here is a great challenge. Every day brings something new. And adrenaline! I have more here than I have ever had anywhere else."

Kampala, 16th December 2003