Bringing SUMAYA to Life

Producer | Script writer | Director | Cinematographer | Editor …etc. The filmmaker!!

The sum of it all

Bringing SUMAYA to life (the finished film) took a period of about 2 years (2021 - 2022). In years past, Jane Mapenzi (the founder of SUMAYA) and I had casually talked about an intervention for women suffering as a result of mental health challenges and addiction diseases. It is in 2021 that we went beyond conversation to action.

I climbed mountains, swum across rivers, crossed valleys, and somehow made it to the end of the finished production. I was just one person handling so many production details whilst juggling commitments outside of the SUMAYA project. Somehow I managed to multitask quite seamlessly. I felt like a feather being carried through by the wind.

For the most part, we achieved what we set out to do and that was truly rewarding. In life, the moment you complete that “first” of anything, you open yourself up to a world of possibilities and it just keeps getting easier as you go on.

Many people may not know that before the short film was produced and premiered in 2022, SUMAYA had started in 2021 with a pilot episode that was produced and posted on Joanitta Nassali’s Youtube channel. Joanitta is the lead actor in the SUMAYA series and had a decent following on her personal Youtube.

At the time, SUMAYA had no social media presence and so we looked for a place the episode would easily gain some traction and opted for Joanitta’s channel.

The main purpose of making the pilot episode was to complement our grant proposal efforts. The episode chosen to be produced was chosen simply because it was the cheapest to execute and could give a somewhat good idea of what the series would look like once funded. Though in the scripting, it is the lumbe (vigil) episode that launches the series, we placed a piece of that episode in the short film.

When the pilot episode premiered on YouTube, we got a lot of great reviews, and many people talked about how much information on mental health is needed in African societies. As the person who filmed and edited it, it was far from my best work technically, but the story was a winner, and delivering a message of hope and transformation, outweighed a not-so-perfect presentation. We didn’t have funding (all the money used in the making of the films was out of pocket), but we had to start somewhere with what we had so that others could come along and help.

Months down the line, the grants were not “granting” so we re-strategised, and in May 2022 we produced a short film that highlights season one of the series storyline and opted for a “GO FUND ME” campaign as a way to mobilize funds for the full production. That is where we are right now. (Check out “The founder’s story” to understand the heart and mind behind this project and how you can come along with the team)

The story and title

Jane Mapenzi (the founder of the SUMAYA project) gave me priceless insight in form of real-life stories and experiences she has had while working as a mental health and addiction therapist in some of Uganda’s most notable facilities. These stories gave me the canvas I needed to paint the YouTube series called SUMAYA.

Even though the series is titled SUMAYA, the lead character is MALI. This character, played by Joanitta Nassali, was crafted from Jane Mapenzi herself and the very real advocacy work she does each day to help the state of mental health and addiction among the populace in Uganda.

The title “SUMAYA” is a name shared with one of the women Mapenzi has helped in her advocacy work, she was the “last straw” that broke the camel’s back and prompted Jane to take decisive action to find a lasting solution as regards poor mental health and addiction in the country.

Sumaya standing with Esther K Sammy

When we were looking for a title for the series, the name SUMAYA came to mind, when I searched for the meaning, I found out that it has Arabic origins and means “High above” and “exalted” this aligned perfectly with what we are trying to do for the many SUMAYAs out there and so it became the name of the series as well as the entire project. SUMAYA - “Rise Above The Pain”

The stories in the series are real, with tiny ingredients of fiction. No lady’s story is portrayed exactly as it was. In the scripting, we made sure that the storyline and acting comes out as authentically African. It is an African image, with an African voice, speaking to African problems.

Swimming with the tide

For both the pilot episode and short film, we had production schedules that guided all activities from pre-production to post-production. All volunteer cast and crew were given copies of these well in time and it made our work process easier.

Sometimes not everything was accomplished on the day it was set to be accomplished, to keep everything moving, unless absolutely necessary, we did not transfer work to another day, we just found a way to work with what we had managed to accomplish on the day set for that task.

Producing the pilot episode didn’t come with so many challenges since it was a one-day shoot. The major hiccup was the fact that all the actors were being put in front of the camera for the first time, we had talent and lines insomnia quite a lot hehehe…for some of the actors, we had to do SO MANY TAKES!! The moment their performance had a semblance of what had been scripted, I wrapped up the scene.

I quit and got back in the game so many times on this shoot, I lost count. To top it all off, the guy I had hired from equipment, gave me some faulty equipment (e.g. one working battery and a light that made a sound like a generator and so we couldn’t use it) so there would be times we are just seating around waiting for the battery to charge.

While filming the short film, the challenges came in the “pro max” version. We had 3 major locations; Bajo, Kasokoso, and Kiisasi. The plan we set out with was to have a crew and some of the actors sleep over in Bajo, and early in the morning get started with “The family meeting scene” and then do the “Witchdoctor scene”, Finally the “lumbe/vigil scene” in the evening and then we close shop and travel to the next location which would be Kasokoso. That didn’t happen.

Remember we had taken time to scout locations, and during these times, we talked to people who would be extras and help us as fixers in the communities, we even got all area LCs on board. The reassurance and confidence we were given by certain people, could make anyone walk on the moon, but come D-day, we had to go on the streets and gather all gentiles because the Jews were a no-show.

DAY 1

On day one of the short film - we started with the witch doctor scene, then came back and set up for the vigil scene, the fact that we had cooked some pilau and porridge, helped attract the community.

We had to execute as many shots as possible before those acting like drunkards in the scene became overly rowdy with the very real alcohol they had purchased for themselves (They rejected our empty bottles. “Props” was not in their vocabulary). For the missing actors, we had to rewrite the storyline in real-time.

Somehow in all that chaos, we finished the shots for the day and had to remain in that location because we were yet to film the family meeting scene. We scheduled it for the next day early in the morning and agreed on the call time with our eager and enthusiastic gentiles.

DAY 2

After some breakfast, some of the actors/crew (almost everyone played double roles) are sent to Kasokoso to prepare ahead of time for the shoots there as we quickly finish up with the family meeting, “quickly” was a beautiful dream I speedily gave up on. Again some Jews didn’t show up, so we had to rewrite the story and work with the available gentiles.

During the filming, some things were obvious to me but not so obvious to my team, and so I ended up snapping at certain points (I made sure I apologized after hehe) because I was having to keep watch over so much.

This particular family meeting scene was supposed to have been concluded within the morning hours, but because we did so many takes, the spot we had gotten was overridden by sunshine and became unusable. I didn’t have the equipment or crew to help keep that place usable with things like filters and the likes.

I lost it for a bit and had to seat down for a while. I took a few breaths, and that’s when I thought of the character Sumaya being carried away into the bushy path she had come from to conclude the scene. This path had enough shade for me to get a somewhat decent shot (Perhaps at some point in the future, the original script will be uploaded so that people can see just how far we had to improvise hehehe...)

Somehow we concluded the family meeting scene and took an Uber to Kasokoso. In Kasokoso we were meant to have filmed three scenes that day. The scene with Deno and Diana, Sumaya having a drink up, The Kafunda scene, and The mob chase. Ambitious I know, but we simply didn’t have enough money to hire the equipment beyond three days. At the end of this day, we had only done the drink-up scene, then Deno and Diana’s scene, another case of “Actor’s block” ate most of the time. (Deno hi! haha!)

DAY 3

We managed to do the Kafunda scene, the mob chase, the garbage boys, and a bit of the scene at mama Sumaya’s home. On this day, the camera batteries ran out midway through the last scene at mama Sumaya’s place, it would have been impossible for them to be recharged before the sun went down so we decided to close shop for the day.

So the scene where Mali brings Angel to Mama Sumaya’s home and Geoffrey busts in through the gate was shot in two days. We were meant to have a pastor in that scene and we booked a certain Jew to act as the pastor, but when they didn’t show up the next day, still we had to rewrite that part.

DAY 4

This was the day I was meant to return the equipment so the tension was well built up. Key scenes in the short film had not yet been captured; the rehab scene/ Sumaya in the hospital, and the second half of mama Sumaya's home scene. We started early to try and finish up the scenes quickly, we ended up finishing everything at around 2 pm. I jumped on a boda after the shoot, and somehow I didn’t attract any fines upon returning the equipment, I was so thankful! I came back and ate some celebratory pork with the crew.

Post-production was a whole other journey as well, my previously perfect editing software gave me grief for months!! I had to just keep switching up and focus on other projects to avoid losing my mind with stress. I eventually sorted the problem and somewhere in there discovered new professional software.

All through the shoots, there was no time to get angry or be disappointed, we had to continually think fast, realign, and maintain focus. Very few will ever know how much it takes to make a film on a “zero budget”, and that’s okay. We will continue to swim with the tides and get better in time.

The hardships

Filming of the pilot episode was done in July 2021, I remember the Covid-19 restrictions were still in place, though with a bit of ease in movements. I was the scriptwriter, production manager, director, cinematographer, etc... and even assisted those I had given tasks to assist me on like storyboarding, setting sound, welfare, and the likes. How I did not run mad but thrived in it all, can only be attributed to the grace of God.

Production of the pilot episode was also marked with a lot of walking everywhere and using bodas (motorcycle taxis) occasionally.

In 2022, we produced the short film fresh out of the worst sickness episodes I had experienced in a very long time. I had been sick with malaria, Typhoid, and a urinary tract infection, and then I also had a serious case of cough and flu all at once! I grew so thin and weak. From the time I was a child, my great appetite never suffered regardless of whether I was sick or not, but this particular sickness was so grave that I completely rejected food (those who know me know how serious that is). I would try and completely fail to even put food in my mouth.

We were meant to have filmed in April, and so as soon as I had gotten back on my feet, I mobilized the team for a 3-day shoot in May.

FACT 1: The pilot episode was produced on a budget of 1 million UGX, and with this money, we were able to hold character development meetings, hold auditions, do actor training (I worked with first-time actors only), scout locations, and film for one day and a half (I demanded the faulty equipment guy to give me additional hours the next day which we used to film the flashback).

FACT 2: The short film was produced on a budget of 3.4 million UGX. The bulk of the budget went to equipment hire (this time we had much better gear), followed by logistics, welfare, and post-production. We also spent some money on scouting locations, but we didn’t have to do any actor training because most of the leads had been trained before the production of the pilot episode. New actors were trained on set as they read through the script, and this proved advantageous for us. Over-rehearsing a first-time actor can kill their delivery.

Needless to say, the majority of the cast and crew, are great friends of mine and film enthusiasts. They are really supportive of the project; SUMAYA would not be if I didn’t have the team that I had to work with. I was the only technical person, but all were ready to learn, ready to help, and translated their professionalism in other fields, to the film project.

Not many people would readily give of their time and expertise with a promise of only transport refund and feeding, but they did. We had so many wilderness experiences, but everyone went about it joyfully as a way to help the cause. Regardless of the limited budget, EVERYTHING was done professionally and we thank God for this.

The future

The future is bright! That is all I can say, we welcome your support in form of financial contribution, but even without that, the YouTube series called SUMAYA will see the light of day. Just stay tuned!

Behind the scenes of upcoming SUMAYA shorts for 2023