Shadow And Act RISING Award winner and Kyenvu filmmaker Kemiyondo Coutinho is launching a new initiative to help up-and-coming women filmmakers from Uganda.

Coutinho launched an Indiegogo campaign called The Fivefor5 fund, which will support five Ugandan female filmmakers with $5,000 each to make a five minutes long short film.

“Often, as female filmmakers, we get told to ‘just do it!’ Whilst I value that tenacious mindset, it fails to recognize the very real costs surrounding filmmaking,” she wrote on her Indiegogo page. “Even after having made Kyenvu, which surpassed all my expectations, finding money for the next shoot has been a major hurdle. Let’s face it, there is not enough ‘just do it’ to pay for a DP, LIGHTING, SOUND, etc.”

$4,500 of the $5,000 will be used for production costs, which will be utilized by Media256, who will work as a partner with the Fivefor5Fund. The last $500 will be used for festival fees, something Coutinho said was one of the “unforeseen” costs “that almost halted where I submitted my work.”

In total, Coutinho wants to raise $19,000 of the complete $25,000. The other funds will come from Coutinho’s own pocket ($2,000) and from Uganda’s Mobile Money ($4,000). Fundraising will take place between November 1 to December 5. Directors will be able to submit their projects between January 1 through January 31 of 2020. The final five will be selected by the end of February, with film production starting in April.

Learn more in the video below and at Coutinho’s Indiegogo page.

Five for 5 fund. from Kemistry Klass on Vimeo.

READ MORE:

Kemiyondo Coutinho’s Astonishing ‘Kyenvu’ Is The First Ugandan Film To Hit Hulu

Photo credit: Kemiyondo Coutinho/KemistryKlass

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FiveFor5 Fund