dilman

This is the blog of @dilmandila@mograph.social a writer, filmmaker, and all round storyteller who thinks of himself as a transmedia artist. I primarily work in science fiction and fantasy, been listed in multiple awards like BSFA 2021, Nommo Awards 2021 and 2022, and my films have won awards in many festivals. #fedi22 #sff #writing #writingcommunity #africa

Egypt: Where Everything is Negotiable

For a moment, I thought Egyptians were the second friendliest people I’d ever met in my travels, Nepali being the first. The word ‘Welcome’ was always at the tip of their tongue. In Luxor, strangers would approach me and say ‘Where are you from?’ – No greeting, no hello, nothing, just straight to the question – and when I answered, they would say ‘Welcome’ with a big smile.

A Play list for Broken Hearts

I made this playlist for you, my dear friend, who is going through a breakup. I know how much you love music, but this playlist is not for therapy. It’s sort of a cheeky compilation of the phases you go through during in a breakup.

How to Successfully Become a Full-time Artist

I bought a bottle of wine in Durban, South Africa, in March 2015. It’s cheap, cost about a hundred rand, but at that time I was going through very tough times and wanted something to use in celebration when the tide turns. Today, I’m seriously thinking about opening that bottle. I wonder if it’s still good, for I travel frequently and switch off the fridge to save power. I want to celebrate for 2018 is a ten-year anniversary.

Short Films

I love creating short films, mostly because I can work on them as a one man crew. Film is a complex art. I sometimes think it is not even art, because it requires a lot of people working together to create it, and it relies so much on technology and on money. Jean Luc Godard once said that film will only become an art if the tools of making it are as cheap as pencil and paper. I think it will become art only if it becomes possible for one individual to create it with tools that are cheaper than pencil and paper. We are getting there, as cameras and software get friendlier for one-person-crews, as computing power gets cheaper, we are getting there. In most of the short films here, I was the only crew, doing everything from lighting to camera work to editing. It’s crazy fun.

I’ve listed them in order of those I like the most, or those that came out really nicely.

What Happened in Room 13

And adulterous affair goes wrong. The woman ends up dead. The man races against time to bury her body before anyone notices his crime.

I like this film a lot. It features Anne Kansiime in her first film role (she has not changed much in over ten years, I mean in terms of looks). I wrote it as an experiment, when I challenged myself to make a short film without any dialog. I think anyone who wants to be a serious filmmaker should make short films without dialog, it’s a great process that trains you to think in visual terms.

Kifaro

A man sends a killer robot after his wife and her secret lover.

Love Clone

She married a monster, but she found a perfect solution

Birdy Blue Pet

She killed her pet bird. Now she can’t have any friends.

Ghost of a Broken Heart

In near-future Kampala, a woman discovers the perfect way to get revenge, when she finds her boyfriend cheating on her with her best friend.

Cursed Widow Blues

She cheated on her husband, and he killed himself in grief. Now, she can’t ever fall in love again.

No Letting Go

A woman who tries to cheat death, and unleashes a horror upon her family.

Saving Mugisha!

About a boy who is wets his bed, and the teacher who helps him to find peace in his life.

Move-In

A couple discovers that the new house they are moving into was used to make a horror-movie, and that the set was never dismantled.

This is part of the series of short films that I’m making under the horror-romance theme. I started learning CGI last year, and this film is the first attempt to use it for special effects. It didn’t come out too badly, I think.

Jilted Lovers

When a man fails to woo a woman, he joins a sinister group that gives him evil powers to get her.

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Move-in: My first short film with CGI special effects

https://youtu.be/aMtfeaZGSi4

At the end of last year, I started to learn CGI to improve on the visual effects of my sci-fi and fantasy films. I set out to produce at least four short films this year to master CGI, and this film, Move-in, is the first. It has a simple story, about a couple who move into a new house and discover that it was used to shoot a horror, and that the set was not dismantled. As horror film tropes go, the woman decides to enter the closet, though any sane person would not, and what she finds there, well, is pure evil. 

I know I still have a long way to go before achieving photo-realistic effects, and I won’t rest until I can produce special effects that are as close to Hollywood as possible. It gets difficult every day to be an independent filmmaker, especially one based in a country like Uganda where there is hardly an industry. No market, no human resources, no equipment, nothing. And it gets harder because Hollywood and other big players now days offer free films to watch online. So for us who want to make sci-fi, we play in a very uneven field, with all the odds against us. Viewers will always prefer the superior special effects of Hollywood. In the past, we had a special audience since our stories featured stuff that Hollywood could not touch, but now they are making films like Queen of Katwe and Black Panther, and it only spells doom for us. 

Thankfully, there are free software, like Blender and Unity, which give us hope. I’ve been learning Blender for the last few months, and I think I’ve got the hang of it. The effects in this short film were made entirely on it.

This week, the first #UgBlogWeek of the year is running with the theme Wakanda Africa Do You Envision? It’s obviously inspired by Black Panther, and it’s an indication of what I’m talking about. They are coming to take over even the little that we are left with. My ideal Africa is one in which the people on the continent go crazy over films produced entirely on the continent, without money or co-production from outside, the way they went crazy over films like Black Panther. On a broader scale, I want to see Africa consuming hi-tech stuff that it produces. If you look at the global scheme of things, you see the effect of colonialism has conditioned us to consume products from the West, and now from China, however horrible the products are. Like second hand clothes. Recently the US threatened to bomb East African countries if they banned second-hand clothing to support local textile industries. Well, not exactly to bomb, but you get the idea. They bullied, and bullied, and only Rwanda is bold enough to stand up against the big bully. 

At least with music, we beat them. We’ve always, largely, preferred our music. With books, things have been changing over the last few years because it is much cheaper to produce a good quality book than it is to produce a film. I’m not sure film will change anytime soon. I know, you are going to mention Nollywood and other such films, and yes, that is a big industry, but when was the last time you heard of a blockbuster from Nollywood? You get my point? And if they continue producing the likes of Queen of Katwe and Black Panther, you think Nollywood will still have relevance if it refuses to evolve?

It’s almost an unspoken rule that for you to make a film that sells well, even within the continent, you need funding or a co-producer from outside the continent, mostly European, and that means they control the stories we tell. It was much worse ten or so years ago, before technology democratized film making, and before the Internet offered a lot more distribution options. As data costs continue to fall, and as we get new players like MTN Shortz, I see great change coming.

But we still have to improve on the quality of our films, and of other kind of stories. We have to stop feeding our fans garbage and expect them to swallow it just because it is local content. Which is why I’m throwing myself into learning CGI. I can’t make it without your help. I can’t make it if I don’t have cheerleaders and moral boosters and patrons and fans. I can’t make it without you. 

Which is why I started this fund raising thing, where you can donate anything you have, as low as $1 or UGX 5,000. Or maybe you can just be a fan and make noise on my behalf and blow my vuvuzela until the world knows that there is someone here who deserves attention. Here is the link for Mobile Money www.dilmandila.com/donate or, if you want to use a card, patreon.com/dilstories. Show me the love!

I’ve started on my next short film already, I hope to have it ready in before June. Be sure to leave me your email or Whatsapp number for updates. See contact

Kampala at Night

I love Kampala at night. I adore the low lights, which almost give it a romantic ambiance. It may not be brightly lit like the really big and rich cities, but the low lights give it a unique characteristic. I know a time will come when ‘development’ will happen and wipe away the beauty, and … Read more

The trouble with Afrofuturism

Earlier this month, I was in Amsterdam to attend Other Futures, the first festival of non-western science fiction, a great event that featured some of the best content creators of science fiction and fantasy today. As I walked the cold streets, as I sat in panels discussing diversity in science fiction or talked about our … Read more

How to donate to and support my films

I make science fiction films set in Uganda (East Africa) because we are often ignored in visualizations of the future. When they include us, we are portrayed negatively, or as victims, or our stories are told through their point of view. I want us all to dream, to imagine ourselves in pasts and futures not written by someone else, only then can we take control of our destiny.