Rise of the Culture impacts society and society grows by in Kenya, is a private organisation that uses film to culture, censorship took that growth away from us. support and push for sustainable societal However with changes in government so did development. This isn’t the first time they’ve used im- new bold changes in policy occur. Today new narratives mersive storytelling featuring a hero Archetype. based on the definitions, interests, passions, Upendo Hero is a participatory documentary aspirations and lifestyle choices of Kenyans are featuring the titular character as a vigilante helping being created every day. reclaim Nairobi’s public spaces. In the film, Upendo Hero (Upendo means love in Swahili) is a lover of Far from the days of theatre stages we now see the Nairobi, a sworn enemy of gentrification and a soldier “rise of the new bold”, artists who are using different against the privatization of public space.” tools to tell our stories. Love stories from Oromia, graphic novels about the Orisha of Nigeria, and Their approach for African Sapcemakers was tales of Africans defying stereotypes and different but remains as impactful as Upendo Hero. triumphing against all odds. Any story told in virtual reality can seem compelling because of the wow factor”. However, in African Kenyan artistic expressions are not only Spacemakers, the team manage to not only draw you embracing technological advances but also using visually into the depicted creatives spaces but pull them to play with all five senses as they tell our you emotionally into the activities therein. It is a stories. The true value of selling African narratives thrilling telling of what art is capable of from the sto- is multiplied exponentially by the use of tech to sell ries in the film to how it was created. It’s a film in 5 emotions, thoughts and reimagined futures. parts, with each episode depicting a different organisation or individuals in their creative space. African Spacemakers is one of the best examples The virtual tour is of Nairobi’s urban landscape and of the new bold in African storytelling. The film is how these spaces are currently “challenging the In the late 80’s and ’90s, Kenyan theatre activism where bold playwrights and producers were a series of five docu-fictions depicting the lives of acceptance of established social norms on sexuality, was a bustling scene. Nearly every day of churning out plays that led to a rise in censorship. Not their imagined heroes. It’s an immersive telling of gender, religion, minorities, and race.” the week you’d find NGO sponsored plays to be stopped the artists worked around the new laws how creative society can and continue to be agents that were public service announcements aimed at muzzling them by selling tickets to their dress of social change. Cultural Video production, CVP Virtual reality experiences and the secret theatrical and reproductions of Shakespeare’s works rehearsals instead. The government’s feverish efforts (Cultural Video Production), who produced the film showings may seem quite different but in their use to on stage. in curtailing whatever freedom of speech we had at the alongside Black Rhino VR and the Goethe Institut tell stories focused on the African Narrative, they are time proved that their work was having a positive quite similar. However, there was another world existing effect. within the theatre scene. One of cultural 50nd3k4 126 50nd3k4 127 50nd3k4 126