“Urban Nights” is a concept for an outdoor film screening in the style format of screen on the green. Outdoor cinema is a great way to bring people together in appreciation of public space and the diversity within a city. Public spaces and inclusive cities play a key role in enabling the youth, women and communities to explore opportunities, share ideas, and engage in recreational and social activities.

Several films can be screened using cost and energy effective means, and over a period of time in the month of October.

Urban Nights in Nairobi

UN-Habitat has tagged October as “Urban October” this is marked every year with an aggressive marketing of the urban agenda on social media platforms as well as through events and collaborations with partners to highlight the issues.

In promoting a positive urban agenda the agency aims to highlight various platforms that engage the society for positive change.

Urban October encompasses two UN-Habitat flagship Days: World Habitat Day and World Cities Day. This year, World Habitat Day will be celebrated on 5 October under the theme Public Spaces for All and World Cities Day on 31 October under the theme Designed to live together.

It is of note that most of these platforms engross a majority of youth, incorporating their talent and abilities for change. Public spaces and inclusive cities play a key role in enabling the youth, women and communities to explore opportunities, share ideas, engage in recreational and social activities. In Nairobi Kenya, Sports and Art are at the forefront of youth engagement.

Film is one such area where a lot of time, money and capacity building drives have been invested. Local films have risen in quality and thus their popularity locally has grown. Dedicated screenings of local films at the theatre were unheard of previously and the box office was dominated largely by Hollywood productions. Now tickets for locally produced movies are often sold out.

“Urban Nights” is an idea for an outdoor film screening in the style format of screen on the green. It is a picnic style screening of these films with the added advantage of a Q&A session with the cast and key members of the production crew. 

As it is the first of its kind held by UN-Habitat, the suggestion is that the films are screened once a week during the month of October. That would make it a total of four films.

FILMS

Four films which have gained notable recognition or have won awards at various film festivals will be selected by a team from staff of UN-Habitat, Slum Film Festival, Kenyatta University School of Arts and others.

SET UP

A DVD Projector combination will project the film onto a projector screen or we can opt for a plain, white wall or crisp, white sheets, either tautly taped or sewn together, to act as the display.  Speakers will also be needed to cater for good quality audio.

PANEL

The panel will consist on select crew and cast members as well as UN-Habitat representative. The crew will discuss their experience throughout the various stages of the film while the UN-Habitat representative will tie it all in in regards to the various urban themes highlighted and deliberate on the agency’s objectives in these various areas.

LOCATIONS

Various public spaces in Nairobi have been proposed among them:

  • 5 October 2015           Pawa 254
  • 8 October 2015           Kenyatta University (Bishop Square)
  • 16 October 2015         Eastleigh Social Hall
  • 17 October 2015         Mathare (kwa Austin field / Mabatini) (tbc)
  • 23 October 2015         Kibera (Kamukunji Grounds)
  • 30 October 2015         Nairobi CBD (Mama Ngina Street)