Above: Some of the creatives on the Zoom meet. Creatives and art enthusiasts at 2019’s Digiart Fest. PHOTOS/COURTESY
Loukman Ali is a big deal right now, mostly because his film, Girl in the Yellow Jumper is set to become the first Ugandan movie to premier on Netflix.
With this achievement, Tribe Uganda decided to include him among the panelists at this year’s Digiart Fest that happened last Friday.
Now in its 5th year, the event was virtual due to the pandemic and for the first time the event had gurus from around the continent live on Zoom.
The event kicked off at 5pm with panel discussions by some African creatives such as Ivan Kibuuka, founder of Navvi Arudem, an Esports promoter who moderated and Thomas Shiva, the team leader of EnterAfrica Rwanda.
However it was the creative arts panel discussions that was interesting.
Loukman Ali of Lookout Films was among the panel moderated by Eugene Kavuma, the co-founder of Design Week Kampala for the topic ‘Branding an artist and their craft in the digital era’.
The session had US-based Solomon Jagwe, creator of Nkoza & Nankya, Raymond Malinga, CEO of creatures animation and director of a new ongoing Disney African animation anthology, Kabelo Maaka, the creative director of Animator Cabblow, Hamid Ibrahim a UK-based Ugandan co-founder of Kugali Media also affiliated with numerous Disney projects and finally Deborah Anderson of Blkwmn Animator based in the US and with experience of working on shows such as Family Guy, Scooby-Doo, and The Cleveland show.
Loukman Ali advised artists to be determined with what they are doing.
“We face a lot of criticism in this industry but I encourage all artists to do what they do best without fear of being criticised,” he said.
He spoke about his experience from being a sketch artist to directing films as well.
Moderated by Laurean Ntaate, founder of Tribe Uganda the organiser of Digiart fest, the second session was The NFT hype explained.
NFT is a new way artistes can get to promote and sell their work digitally on the block chain. The event attracted a good number of artists to get more insights from Somto Ajuluchukwu of Vortex inc Nigeria, Keya Nemesis of Enter Africa Uganda, E Nate Ejob of Zebra Comics and Kabochi Gitau of Doingud found an NFT platform.
The last segment of the day was a Call of Duty video game tournament that saw Ghanaian player Golden Sapilo Kobachi win some Shs600,000 after defeating other African players.
Digiart fest is an annual event that brings together digital artists and lovers of pop culture. It is always held every December, with the last physical event hosted at Acacia mall in 2019, attracting more than 1000 guests for two days.
issejjombwe@ug.nationmedia.com