Wakaliwood
, also known as Ramon Film Productions, is a Ugandan film studio based in Wakaliga, a slum in Uganda's capital of Kampala. Its founder and director is Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana, a.k.a. Nabwana I.G.G., who has been called Uganda's Quentin Tarantino, after the gratuitous violence in his films. The studio is best known for its ultra-low budget action movies, such as Who Killed Captain Alex?, Bad Black, Tebaatusasula, and the upcoming crowdsourced film Tebaatusasula: Ebola.
Isaac Nabwana spent his childhood during the brutal regime of Idi Amin in the 1970s. While the rest of Uganda was stricken with violence and ethnic cleansing, the farmland that Nabwana's grandfather owned was relatively peaceful. His inspirations for filmmaking came from reruns of Hawaii Five-O and Logan's Run, as well as his love of Hollywood action movies and martial arts films from his childhood. As he had never been in a theatre, he relied mostly on his brothers and friends' descriptions of films that were just released theatrically. In 2005, after taking a computer course on video editing and watching video tutorials on filmmaking, Nabwana founded Ramon Film Productions, naming it after his grandmothers, Rachael and Monica.
Alan Hofmanis, a film festival director based in New York City, traveled to Uganda after a friend who worked at an NGO showed him a trailer for Who Killed Captain Alex? on YouTube. After meeting Nabwana and producing a documentary on Ramon Film Productions, Hofmanis has since moved to Uganda to help promote Wakaliwood cinema worldwide. He was also given a starring role in Nabwana's 2016 film Bad Black and has been called "the first Mzungu Ugandan action movie star."
After releasing Who Killed Captain Alex? in 2010, it quickly became internationally recognized and popular. The movie attracted super fans from around the world. With over 8 million views on YouTube, it is Nabwana's most popular film and it turned him into a minor celebrity.
According to IMDb, Nabwana has won 6 awards from various film festivals.
Filmography:
- Who Killed Captain Alex?
- Tebaatusasula (lost film)
- The Return of Uncle Benon
- Rescue Team
- Black: The Most C.I.D. Wanted
- The Crazy World: A Waka Starz Movie
- Bukunja Tekunja Mitti: The Cannibals
- The Revenge
- Bad Black
- Attack on Nyege Nyege Island
- Once a Soja (Agubiri The Gateman)
- The Ivory Trap
- Kapitano
- Crazy World
- Eradicate by Heaven Shall Burn (music video)
- Operation Kakongoliro! The Ugandan Expendables (upcoming)
- Eaten Alive in Uganda (upcoming)
- Tebaatusasula: Ebola (upcoming)
- Revenge 2 (upcoming)
- Plan 9 from Uganda (working title)
- Crazy People (unknown date)
- Ugandan Ninja (unknown date)
- Benon (unknown date)
- Ejjini Kyaalo (unknown date)
- Ejjini Lye Ntwetwe (unknown date)
- Juba: The Snake Girl (unknown date)
- Night Dancers: Fueled by Meat, Driven by Blood (unknown date)
