[Music]
how many of you have ever found yourself
wiping a tear after watching a movie I
can see the men raising their hands
behind their I see you men or how many
of you how many of you found yourself
telling a character in a TV show you’re
watching no no don’t open that door
don’t open the door how many the thing
about stories the thing about TV shows
is that we get so much into them that
you see ourselves in the lives of the
actors the lives of the of the of the
characters in the stories you are
watching stories mirror our lives
stories reflect how our lives are
stories mirror our hopes our dreams and
even sometimes our fears
it’s as if movies summarize life think
of it as life in 90 minutes the power of
the story or the power of stories is
that we end up feeling like we know the
people in the stories you’re watching we
feel that they’re people we like to know
if you don’t know them we feel connected
to them now imagine growing up in a
community where most of the stories in
our community are negative the people in
there in your community are always cast
as the villains as the bad people the
bad people in the movie and if your
community makes its own news is really
something negative happening is the
house binding the somebody who was
caught stealing something only the
negative things for most people in the
slums that they walk in they don’t like
to see people cameras partly because
every time they make it on the news
there’s something bad they never make it
on news when there’s something positive
happening Chinua Achebe the famous
Nigerian author who penned Things Fall
Apart said people create stories create
people or stories create people create
stories in essence what he’s saying is
that we create stories then those
stories end up influencing us and our
communities we end up becoming like the
stories we hear all read about or the
stories that are told about us in the
60s and the 70s I think those are famous
criminal in Kenya known as John Currier
meeting John Committee said in all of
these interviews he used to be in the
police VIP list shows all the
most-wanted criminals the time he was
arrested and he was sentenced to 20
years in jail while in jail killing me
she put down the gun and picked up a pen
and started writing his books in prison
he published the book my life in crime
and about 13 years into his sentence he
got released for good behavior
so that’s junk real meaty changing his
story he changed his story from what was
there before or Halles known before to
know being an author and as we speak now
he runs an organization in his hometown
in Marana which is in central part of
Kenya where he rehabilitate street kids
and teaches them how to be respectable
members of the community so that’s a
different story whose living I ran an
organization called Salaamu Johnny just
to say Lee was joined
Salaamu which means films Johnny in the
Sun and with film with Johnny we train
young people from the most from the
informal settlement in Nairobi most of
the informal settlements oh now they can
tell the lie that stories using film and
television how they can tell better
stories and I remember when he began
film with Johnny most of the people
thought why don’t you teach this
children or this youth you’re working
with to do easy work have them just
document stories don’t have them doing
drama comedies you know things that make
them think the creative things they
thought it’s easier just give them a
camera and tell them show us the bad
things in camera you know the raw sewage
flowing then collected garbage heaps the
dot the smell
have them show that
but I noticed that the students have
acted by walk to me and wanted more for
the character of the stories they’re
working on they wanted the characters to
experience life knowledge to do stories
that showed characters were full and I
noticed quickly that it was a character
in a movie the working on they’d want a
car that have a hotter situation that
they were in so they’d say for example
let’s have him dumped by his girlfriend
no no no someone has to say let’s have
him grow in the poorest part of the slum
then another would say how about after
his girlfriend has dumped him he gets
hit by a bus let’s say if if he’s hit by
a bus I mean I was Terry is gone he’s
ended quickly I didn’t say okay okay
okay
how about we have him injured we have
him paralyzed neck down I guessing the
drift icing the trend if the character
was between a rock and a hard place they
wanted the rock smoldering hot but the
thing about the stories that are told by
the users working with even though the
stories began in the slums the stories
didn’t end there
the characters they worked with were
fighting to come out of the bad
situations they were in the characters
were aggressively and actively pursuing
better for a better future a better
fortune you see for most of these young
people I work with they had dreams – the
dreaming of being studs they wanted to
move from the gutters of the community
to the gated communities they wanted
change and what had change for their
and therein lies the problem about the
stories we tell of the people in the
slums the problem is not the setting
it’s okay to begin from there but more
often than not the stories we tell and
there they don’t progress if there’s any
change is for the worse for the wrong
people I work with they felt that the
change can also be positive the change
can be different boom believe Oh hoo
Lambie vu
that’s a Swahili proverb which means the
person who is patient gets the fruit so
I grew up collecting quotes I just love
the way quotes had a way of just
summarizing an idea and just put an idea
to wisdom in a small thing so I love
that about quotes but I find I found
myself more often than not not
remembering that the quotes or the cost
not eliciting emotions from me but I
found myself remembering the story that
my parents told me my father told me
when he was growing up his his parents
were so poor that he couldn’t afford to
buy a short capsula kanessa
and when he began school he used to be a
shot only and go to school that way and
most of the time after walking for so
many kilometres he’d come back home
after school and not eat anything at
home that boy who is to go to school or
a shot ended up finishing high school
and getting a job and his fortunes
change that boy who never stopped a
shorty is now I diplomat to the UN and I
guess he has many suits now so we
generally remember whom believer who
Lambie vu or this story I suggest that
this story would stick more than just a
problem because this story brings things
in a in your imagination it makes you
feel something
there’s a sort of a mother told me that
when she was grown up
they used to split firewood for cooking
and I don’t know how many of you know
how to split firewood so you’d get there
the piece of wood put it down then you
have to step on it to pivot it how many
of you know how to do that they step on
it let me pick an axe and displace it so
the time she was doing that I should
ended up splitting the piece of wood and
she split her toe into – she’s so
injured that she couldn’t get any
medical attention where she was in rural
Kenya in rural CI a– so she had to come
to nairobi and get specialized treatment
in a row b she stayed with one of my
relatives and while she’s getting that
treatment she bumped into my father and
she met my father and that’s how they
met
so what’s the moral of that story
sometimes when you split your big toe
you could meet your soul mate no no
that’s what the moral the moral is
sometimes even the things that sim was
can actually end up becoming better so
you may not be in a place to create a
movie or a TV show but I suggest that
you in a place where you can start
writing a story I say about the kind of
life you’d like to leave I thought about
how you’d like to be remembered or to be
seen by people so for instance my story
would be something like can allow a
filmmaker who acted the youth from the
informal settlements he dreams ten
ladies and gentlemen from film who
Johnny would win an Oscar in his
lifetime one of the most prestigious
awards in films so that’s my story and a
times if something negative or something
unexpected happens to you you have an
opportunity of including that in your
story so if today I dropped one of my
tools of trade on or my camera’s down my
expensive cameras and breaks to pieces
maybe I can add that to my story this
way Ken alow has continued to take
pictures with this camera phone
realizing that a camera is just a tool
is not the end in itself
so you could be here and you have taken
a long time but that’s just a small part
of your story
so what eight years of Governors in
kubera I met one of my students called
George’s and George’s this six-two guy
very big and very very tall and very big
came to me and told me the audience
didn’t get robbed me meaning hey you can
you give me twenty shillings I told him
of course not I can’t give you what
should I give you money I mean you’re
big enough you can fend for yourself
then George’s ask me like Kimmy what do
I told him I’m a filmmaker I do
photography I do TV shows so this is
they just asked me how about you trained
me how to do that
he came online with us and over time he
became so good fuckin all the shows they
worked on is called XYZ show most of you
are from Kenya annoyed the show that has
puppets curry catching politicians so
that’s the show he worked on they just
became so good he branched out and he
said his own company so in fact two
years ago my company and George’s
company were bidding for work George’s
ended up winning the bid
he had smarted us that’s George’s story
I can also tell you about Fatuma when
Fatuma finished high school he had very
poor grades fatima couldn’t go to
university far too much got two options
like most of the guards in his community
a that go and become a house help or get
married off and maybe bring that dowry
to her family but for tumour really
wanted to go to college she really
wanted to go to university she came and
learn how to edit video and over time
she went and did the bridging courses in
a way where you got to increase your
grades in university so she did the
bridging courses and she joined one the
local universities as we speak now
Fatima’s edited over 40 TV episodes
when one of the show she works with one
rather is called a one-in-a-million that
comes on eminent or DSTV on Wednesday
nights
Fatima is also now able to pay our own
fees and also educate some of Absa
Billings so for two months or a change
she began from a place maybe where she
didn’t have much hope and future but the
stories change and that’s the power of
stories that stories are so dynamic
stories changed they don’t have to stay
stagnant I feel that quotes are stagnant
what stay there but when you have a
story I saw you can change and often for
the better
but where do you begin I suggest you
begin by writing a paragraph about how
it wants to be seen or how you want to
be remembered and after you do that
don’t keep it to yourself share it with
others because Surak comes alive when
others know about it and after you do
that memorize your story and go out
there and live a better story thank you
you [Applause]
how many of you have ever found yourself
wiping a tear after watching a movie I
can see the men raising their hands
behind their I see you men or how many
of you how many of you found yourself
telling a character in a TV show you’re
watching no no don’t open that door
don’t open the door how many the thing
about stories the thing about TV shows
is that we get so much into them that
you see ourselves in the lives of the
actors the lives of the of the of the
characters in the stories you are
watching stories mirror our lives
stories reflect how our lives are
stories mirror our hopes our dreams and
even sometimes our fears
it’s as if movies summarize life think
of it as life in 90 minutes the power of
the story or the power of stories is
that we end up feeling like we know the
people in the stories you’re watching we
feel that they’re people we like to know
if you don’t know them we feel connected
to them now imagine growing up in a
community where most of the stories in
our community are negative the people in
there in your community are always cast
as the villains as the bad people the
bad people in the movie and if your
community makes its own news is really
something negative happening is the
house binding the somebody who was
caught stealing something only the
negative things for most people in the
slums that they walk in they don’t like
to see people cameras partly because
every time they make it on the news
there’s something bad they never make it
on news when there’s something positive
happening Chinua Achebe the famous
Nigerian author who penned Things Fall
Apart said people create stories create
people or stories create people create
stories in essence what he’s saying is
that we create stories then those
stories end up influencing us and our
communities we end up becoming like the
stories we hear all read about or the
stories that are told about us in the
60s and the 70s I think those are famous
criminal in Kenya known as John Currier
meeting John Committee said in all of
these interviews he used to be in the
police VIP list shows all the
most-wanted criminals the time he was
arrested and he was sentenced to 20
years in jail while in jail killing me
she put down the gun and picked up a pen
and started writing his books in prison
he published the book my life in crime
and about 13 years into his sentence he
got released for good behavior
so that’s junk real meaty changing his
story he changed his story from what was
there before or Halles known before to
know being an author and as we speak now
he runs an organization in his hometown
in Marana which is in central part of
Kenya where he rehabilitate street kids
and teaches them how to be respectable
members of the community so that’s a
different story whose living I ran an
organization called Salaamu Johnny just
to say Lee was joined
Salaamu which means films Johnny in the
Sun and with film with Johnny we train
young people from the most from the
informal settlement in Nairobi most of
the informal settlements oh now they can
tell the lie that stories using film and
television how they can tell better
stories and I remember when he began
film with Johnny most of the people
thought why don’t you teach this
children or this youth you’re working
with to do easy work have them just
document stories don’t have them doing
drama comedies you know things that make
them think the creative things they
thought it’s easier just give them a
camera and tell them show us the bad
things in camera you know the raw sewage
flowing then collected garbage heaps the
dot the smell
have them show that
but I noticed that the students have
acted by walk to me and wanted more for
the character of the stories they’re
working on they wanted the characters to
experience life knowledge to do stories
that showed characters were full and I
noticed quickly that it was a character
in a movie the working on they’d want a
car that have a hotter situation that
they were in so they’d say for example
let’s have him dumped by his girlfriend
no no no someone has to say let’s have
him grow in the poorest part of the slum
then another would say how about after
his girlfriend has dumped him he gets
hit by a bus let’s say if if he’s hit by
a bus I mean I was Terry is gone he’s
ended quickly I didn’t say okay okay
okay
how about we have him injured we have
him paralyzed neck down I guessing the
drift icing the trend if the character
was between a rock and a hard place they
wanted the rock smoldering hot but the
thing about the stories that are told by
the users working with even though the
stories began in the slums the stories
didn’t end there
the characters they worked with were
fighting to come out of the bad
situations they were in the characters
were aggressively and actively pursuing
better for a better future a better
fortune you see for most of these young
people I work with they had dreams – the
dreaming of being studs they wanted to
move from the gutters of the community
to the gated communities they wanted
change and what had change for their
and therein lies the problem about the
stories we tell of the people in the
slums the problem is not the setting
it’s okay to begin from there but more
often than not the stories we tell and
there they don’t progress if there’s any
change is for the worse for the wrong
people I work with they felt that the
change can also be positive the change
can be different boom believe Oh hoo
Lambie vu
that’s a Swahili proverb which means the
person who is patient gets the fruit so
I grew up collecting quotes I just love
the way quotes had a way of just
summarizing an idea and just put an idea
to wisdom in a small thing so I love
that about quotes but I find I found
myself more often than not not
remembering that the quotes or the cost
not eliciting emotions from me but I
found myself remembering the story that
my parents told me my father told me
when he was growing up his his parents
were so poor that he couldn’t afford to
buy a short capsula kanessa
and when he began school he used to be a
shot only and go to school that way and
most of the time after walking for so
many kilometres he’d come back home
after school and not eat anything at
home that boy who is to go to school or
a shot ended up finishing high school
and getting a job and his fortunes
change that boy who never stopped a
shorty is now I diplomat to the UN and I
guess he has many suits now so we
generally remember whom believer who
Lambie vu or this story I suggest that
this story would stick more than just a
problem because this story brings things
in a in your imagination it makes you
feel something
there’s a sort of a mother told me that
when she was grown up
they used to split firewood for cooking
and I don’t know how many of you know
how to split firewood so you’d get there
the piece of wood put it down then you
have to step on it to pivot it how many
of you know how to do that they step on
it let me pick an axe and displace it so
the time she was doing that I should
ended up splitting the piece of wood and
she split her toe into – she’s so
injured that she couldn’t get any
medical attention where she was in rural
Kenya in rural CI a– so she had to come
to nairobi and get specialized treatment
in a row b she stayed with one of my
relatives and while she’s getting that
treatment she bumped into my father and
she met my father and that’s how they
met
so what’s the moral of that story
sometimes when you split your big toe
you could meet your soul mate no no
that’s what the moral the moral is
sometimes even the things that sim was
can actually end up becoming better so
you may not be in a place to create a
movie or a TV show but I suggest that
you in a place where you can start
writing a story I say about the kind of
life you’d like to leave I thought about
how you’d like to be remembered or to be
seen by people so for instance my story
would be something like can allow a
filmmaker who acted the youth from the
informal settlements he dreams ten
ladies and gentlemen from film who
Johnny would win an Oscar in his
lifetime one of the most prestigious
awards in films so that’s my story and a
times if something negative or something
unexpected happens to you you have an
opportunity of including that in your
story so if today I dropped one of my
tools of trade on or my camera’s down my
expensive cameras and breaks to pieces
maybe I can add that to my story this
way Ken alow has continued to take
pictures with this camera phone
realizing that a camera is just a tool
is not the end in itself
so you could be here and you have taken
a long time but that’s just a small part
of your story
so what eight years of Governors in
kubera I met one of my students called
George’s and George’s this six-two guy
very big and very very tall and very big
came to me and told me the audience
didn’t get robbed me meaning hey you can
you give me twenty shillings I told him
of course not I can’t give you what
should I give you money I mean you’re
big enough you can fend for yourself
then George’s ask me like Kimmy what do
I told him I’m a filmmaker I do
photography I do TV shows so this is
they just asked me how about you trained
me how to do that
he came online with us and over time he
became so good fuckin all the shows they
worked on is called XYZ show most of you
are from Kenya annoyed the show that has
puppets curry catching politicians so
that’s the show he worked on they just
became so good he branched out and he
said his own company so in fact two
years ago my company and George’s
company were bidding for work George’s
ended up winning the bid
he had smarted us that’s George’s story
I can also tell you about Fatuma when
Fatuma finished high school he had very
poor grades fatima couldn’t go to
university far too much got two options
like most of the guards in his community
a that go and become a house help or get
married off and maybe bring that dowry
to her family but for tumour really
wanted to go to college she really
wanted to go to university she came and
learn how to edit video and over time
she went and did the bridging courses in
a way where you got to increase your
grades in university so she did the
bridging courses and she joined one the
local universities as we speak now
Fatima’s edited over 40 TV episodes
when one of the show she works with one
rather is called a one-in-a-million that
comes on eminent or DSTV on Wednesday
nights
Fatima is also now able to pay our own
fees and also educate some of Absa
Billings so for two months or a change
she began from a place maybe where she
didn’t have much hope and future but the
stories change and that’s the power of
stories that stories are so dynamic
stories changed they don’t have to stay
stagnant I feel that quotes are stagnant
what stay there but when you have a
story I saw you can change and often for
the better
but where do you begin I suggest you
begin by writing a paragraph about how
it wants to be seen or how you want to
be remembered and after you do that
don’t keep it to yourself share it with
others because Surak comes alive when
others know about it and after you do
that memorize your story and go out
there and live a better story thank you
you [Applause]
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