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"Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire", is a ten-part
collection of short animations by producers from six African
countries that is set to premier on the Disney Plus streaming
platform later this year.
Malinga, 32, is one of 14 film makers from South Africa, Egypt,
Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya who are contributing to the
anthology of sci-fi and fantasy stories set in Africa's future.
Oscar-winning film director Peter Ramsey is serving as executive
producer on the project.
"The narrative in Africa has been, you switch on the news right
now, I bet you it's (about) something bad that just happened,"
Malinga told Reuters at his studio in Kampala.
The positives gets lost in the narrative, Malinga says, and this
should change.
"For me (the anthology) is an opportunity to contribute to that
conversation," he said.
Malinga, 32, who holds a degree in animation and visual effects
from a university in Malaysia, started his company, Creatures
Animation Studios, in 2015.
Their big break came in 2017 when their short animated film "A
Kalabanda Ate My Homework" was showcased at the Cannes Film
Festival and won six awards, including for best animation film,
at the African International Film Festival in Nigeria the
following year.
His team, which has grown over the last few years to 10 people,
works from a small dark studio sandwiched between cubicles of
other startups in a makeshift innovation village built from
repurposed shipping containers.
African content is gaining popularity globally thanks to growing
commissions for series and short films by streaming services
like Netflix and Multichoice's Showmax.
In Africa, however, foreign content still dominates and Malinga
said that the Disney anthology was an opportunity to combat
stereotypes and bring African consumers more content that
features people who are like them.
As Malinga's studio brand and talent pool grows, he said, they
are venturing into gaming and also exploring opportunities in
virtual and augmented reality.
His dream, he said, is to bring on the world stage African film
and animation, to replicate the success of other African
industries.
"Afro music has started going around the world... we have some
of our comedians going around and I am like, why not animation
too, why not film?" Malinga said.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Duncan Miriri and
Raissa Kasolowsky)
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