Ditch You Tube and Get On Vimeo
Looking for Kenyan shorts online is honestly frustrating. After we participated in the 48-hour film project we decided to do a follow-up article on the works of past groups and of our competitors. It took us hours to scrap together at least 5 short movies from Vimeo and Youtube. It’s as if after the competition (and more time to edit) these guys figured that the world didn’t deserve to see their work or, which is the more likely case, they just couldn’t be bothered. It’s no wonder that Kenya’s YouTube searches are filled with passe songs, pop music videos that should never have seen the light of day and horrible TV shows that make you question what the network producers were smoking when they let them get on air and if they’ll share.
Vimeo is a much better alternative when it comes to short films, especially with regard to its quality. Youtube is the Hulk, massive, abrasive, filled with anger and lacking in finesse. It spits out horrible content minute after minute with nary a consideration for our poor minds. Of the 70 hours of video uploaded every minute on Youtube probably that more than 70% of it is just pure tripe. Vimeo is Captain America, professional, reliable, suave and slick. There’s fewer people on it, and professional filmmakers also use it to upload their content. Why? Because you are getting your critique from a community that actually wants to help you improve your content as opposed to the hordes of mindless racists, islamophobes and psychopaths who’ll comment on every video with “It’s Barack Osama’s fault that your crap is on the internet.”
“Vimeo is more of a creative based platform whereas YouTube is more of a whore for all kinds of video.” Andrew Mageto, Cinematographer
Recently we came across a group on Vimeo called Vimeo Kenyans that has added some of the best content we’ve seen online in months all in one place. The group was started by Alexander Ikawah and when we asked him why he started it, he had this to say:
“On many occasions, I have roamed about Vimeo looking for Kenyan film content and I have discovered that even though it is scarce, there is some pretty great stuff on there. I figured it was possible that others were also looking for each other and might be having trouble finding these scattered works and so I decided to put all of them together in a compilation”
On the group we’ve found films such as To Catch A Dream a fashion film which is a result of a collaboration between The NEST collective and Chico Leco starring Ajuma Nasenyana and an Acoustic Session shot by Ikawah himself featuring the amazing Valentine Ziki and Checkmate Mido among the 59 videos that have gone up in the group over the past five days.
The group is a godsend for Kenyan filmmakers and enthusiasts who finally can watch good films in the absence of obscenity and unprofessionalism. As photographer Malcolm Muga, says
“Basically Vimeo says professional and YouTube says amateur.”
