Cathryne Czubek’s documentary about an impoverished film-maker and an American superfan veers towards a white saviour narrative but the low-budget movie mogul’s charisma wins out
, and the American fan who comes to meet him and becomes a collaborator. At first it looks like a bouncy, bright feelgood story barely disguising a white-saviour narrative under the surface; after all, that is what both director Cathryne Czubek and former publicist Alan Hofmanis are.
Although former brickmaker Nabwana made thousands of bricks by hand to be able to buy his first cameras, don’t mistake his lack of formal film education for naivety. He’s clearly absorbed most of what he needs to know from watching the action films popular in Uganda, featuring the likes of Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee and Sylvester Stallone.
It’s no wonder Hofmanis was entranced, and his respect for Nabwana seems genuine. That said, one can’t help sensing a performative quality in some of the footage Czubek captures here, as if the border between acting in Nabwana’s films and the subjects “being themselves” for the documentary is a bit blurry. Still, Hofmanis seems smart enough to know he has to watch how he presents himself here and that accusations of white saviour patronage will be inevitable.
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