Yesterday, I was stuck in between two worlds, film and rock. Which is understandable since it was supposed to be a rock film festival. Turned out to be more of a rock BAND festival.Anyway.
I had to cut Bloodshed's wonderful performance short. We were running behind schedule and the management was insisting that I show the first movie, Elvis' Grave. And since it was supposed to be a rock FILM festival....Anyway.
The motto of the festival is Friendship, fun, freedom. I made friends. I suppose some people had fun. But I thought there was very little freedom. And it's difficult to be friendly and have fun without freedom. So now I'm going to concentrate on the freedom aspect of the festival. Freedom is...messy.Dictatorial. Undemocratic. Guerilla-ish. People. I will have my festival. And this time, things will go my way.
*putting on war paint*
No more miss nice guy:-)
Um, if anyone has anything good to say about yesterday, please let me know. Don't bother mentioning the negative aspects. They will be forever etched in my mind. They will be fodder for my guerilla warfare:-)
This blog offers a behind-the-scenes look at ROFFEKE. ROFFEKE is pronounced "rafiki" which is a Swahili word meaning "friend". 'Friendship, Fun, Freedom' is the motto of the ROck 'n' ROll Film FEstival, KEnya. The mission of ROFFEKE is to promote rock music in Kenya by dispelling rock 'n' roll myths and misconceptions via the medium of film. The Purpose of ROFFEKE is "Lighten the Burden".
hi there. i came across your page after someone back home mentioned the rock festival to me and then my google skills led me here. i am extremely interested in reading more about kenya rocks and roffeke because as an outsider (and a far away one at that) i have no idea about what inspired you to get started or what went wrong at pavement.
ReplyDeletealso, i was wondering what your opinion would be on different things like how you relate to rock and roll as a kenyan and what you think of upcoming kenyan bands. are they duplicates of a rock scene somewhere in new york ama does it have a kenyan feel to it? then, music please! i have heard so much about last born sons so is it possible to upload video or music or something since its not available on their page? maybe you could do reviews and such?
oh, and i have one last thing (i swear i'm almost done, i do not know how to summarise aki for real. pole) what would you say to people who reckon that elvis is not the king of rock and roll and that people like chuck berry and little richard were more deserving of that title?
anyway, great blog you have here, the whole rock film festival thing must have been hard to put up and is truly inspiring. i look forward to your updates.
Hi spicebear! Thank you soooo much for your comment. It was exactly what I needed to read after what happened at Pavement. I will be posting people's views of why the film festival didn't go as planned. I don't agree with most of these views but I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Elvis is the King of rock 'n' roll. People get so hang up about the fact that he was white and that he supposedly 'stole' African-American music.Please! But that's a discussion for another time.
Kenyan bands. After Thursday, they are not on the top of my list of favourite things:-) But I've got to give credit where it's due. These kids are doing so much for the Kenyan rock scene, considering that they are facing so many odds. My current favourite Kenyan band is Last Year's Tragedy. Never heard of Last born sons. Will google to find out more about them. I have links to two Kenyan bands (Last year's tragedy and Navarone) in some of the posts. Will put more band links asap.
Somewhere on the blog are the links for Kenya Rocks, Kenya Punk, ROFFEKE and the goth club of Kenya. Just follow the links and you'll get more info about the Kenyan rock scene.
Being a Kenyan rock fan is difficult. We face a lot of myths and misconceptions such as rock is 'mzungu' music, rock is noise, rock is the devil's music. This is why I decided to create roffeke - to address these myths, through film. I love film and I love rock so it was only natural that the two come together:-)
Thank you so much for your comment. Please feel free to join Kenya Rocks:-)I look forward to hearing more from you!