For a moment, Mark Maina wanted to be the man behind the next great Kenyan app. He was enrolled in Computer Science at the University of Nairobi, eyes on code, fingers busy building digital futures. But all that changed one afternoon when he paused The Bourne Ultimatum and started asking questions that had nothing to do with Java.
Mark Maina is the lead editor and co-filmmaker of The People Shall.
Photo credit: Pool
To go to film school or not Neophobia, his first major short — screened at Cannes in 2017, Mark had a few festival laurels under his belt. Neophobia was the only African film showing that year. It also got picked up by the Zanzibar International Film Festival, where something else happened that would alter his course again.
“I asked her, whether it is necessary to get a film degree.”
Kibinge introduced him to Mark Schleicher, the administrator of the international class at the Film Akademie Baden-Württemberg in Germany, one of the most prestigious film institutions in Europe.
Mark Maina is the lead editor and co-filmmaker of The People Shall.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi
Despite those challenges, Harriet ended up being the best film in Mark’s class. It taught him what it really meant to lead a production from start to finish.
“You Feed the Audience Breadcrumbs”
A Pause for Reflection , a short film that weaves together three interlocking narratives about parenting, loss and memory, came from a shoe shop.
Mark Maina is the lead editor and co-filmmaker of The People Shall.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi
A Pause for Reflection its unmistakable texture.
A Pause for Reflection is a deeply personal project, Mark has worked on MTV Shuga, and more prominently, a new series titled The People Shall , which aired during prime time on NTV Kenya in June.
Then there’s a psychological thriller inspired by Memento, told in two timelines, one moving forward, the other backward. “A lot of nonlinear storytelling,” he promises.
