Cinemas on wheels / by Daniel J. Henrich

Cinemas an wheels by Daniel J. Henrich M ost evenings in most v i 11 a g e s o f s u b-Saharan African can be pretty borin g. Certainly m ost people who live there are delighted when an opport unity for a n evening's entertainment comes their way. Films can be a way of bringing ed ucation in an entertaining way to millions of country-dwellers. When health communication stra- tegies are being developed, the visual media form an integral component in the "media mix" . A great deal of research is already available on the growth and use of television in the developing world. Television is a powerful medium, allowing the producer to comm uni- cate strong messages both directly and indirectly to la rge segments of the population. In Egypt, for in- stance, 85 per cent of the population own television sets and 98 per cent have access to them. 10 Kenyan villagers look forward to regular visits from the mobile cinema. Facing page: Entertainment and information attract a rapt audience in a Moroccan community. Photos Cinema Leo ;!_'l/D. Henrich and WHO/ UNESCO/ G. Bohm This is not the case is most of sub-Saharan Africa . In Kenya , tele- vision transmissions primarily reach big cities like Nairobi , Mombasa and Kisumu. To compound the problem, a considerable percentage of Nairo- bi's 2.5 million inhabitants do not have basic services like water, toilets and electricity. Thus, television can only reach the middle to upper classes of Kenya - leaving a majority of the country's 20 million popu- lation untouched. Handclasp International ( HC I) is a Cali fornia-based non-profit-making ed ucational and charitable organi- zation with field offices in Cairo, Bangalore and, most recently, Nai- robi . As funding becomes available, HCI will produce a series of health and development films targeted to lower class and primarily rural audi- ences. Preliminary research has shown that the most effective method of reaching this target audience is through cinema vans. These vans travel from village to village showing a broad variety of films. Most of them are supported by advertising of consumer products. In Kenya, there are three commercial groups which show " Wild West" films, a Ministry of Agriculture cinema project, and a cinema van programme run by a religious group. Pre-production research showed that for HCI our film format should be short, only 10 to 20 minutes, and preferably semi-dramatic; and that the films shown along with our films should not be violent ones. Additional research was commis- sioned through a local university research department and carried out on the audience of the religious cinema van group, Cinema Leo. It arrived at the same conclusions, and showed that their audience of over 250,000 per month most closely fitted our target audience, that is, an age-level under 29 years, la rgely tradesmen and farmers of the "emergent" class, and mostly rural. In the research phase, another non-governmental organization financed three health-related films. Each film has original Swahili music, lasts between seven and 15 minutes and has a relaxed, inductive ap- proach to communication. Titles include "Clean and strong teeth for good health", " Clean hands and face" and "A special drink for diar- rhoea". The films are widely accepted; indeed the tooth care film proves so popular that it has been shown at a number of weddings! Handclasp plans to produce 15- 20 health and nutrition films over the next two years. Each film has a budget of under US $14,000 includ- ing production, overheads and show- ing three times on Cinema Leo. The films will be produced in English and dubbed into Swahili for distribution in East Africa as well as in English- speaking West Africa. We are plan- ning other language versions, includ- ing French for such countries as Zaire and for Francophone West Africa. There will be a series of five 15- to 20-minute dramatic films on AIDS. Using Cinema Leo initially as the major distribution outlet, the films will have a "soap opera" format and will deal frankly with this growing WORLD HEALTH , January - February 1989 threat, approaching it from the standpoint of a monogamous rela- tionship. Each film has a budget of approximately $32,000. In communicating health among the poorest of the poor in sub- Saharan Africa, India or other parts of the world, it is important to research existing avenues of commu- nication . This is true for any commu- nication effort, but especially so where the target audience is not an upper class, urban population. In parts of Africa, the cinema van can provide a powerful medium for communicating health. Properly pro- duced, short, topical films on health, safety, agriculture topics, small busi- ness development, and attitudes to the handicapped are planned by HCI, and expected to have a strong impact on rural audiences. Entire villages often come out to view the films - providing an eager "captive" audience. The cinema van concept entails building up a circuit where a van goes to the same place on the same day each month, and thus creates a loyal audience which will attend month after month . Cinema Leo has four vans which show films in 104 towns and villages WO RLD HEALTH , January-February 1989 each month in Kenya, and two vans in Tanzania which reach another 40 to 50 villages. The reason for the circuit is accountability - both to the audience and to the advertisers. Other groups who have recognised the potential for health and develop- ment have put cinema vans into operation in Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda. Ready-made audience Handclasp continues to make a careful study of the use of cinema vans in health communication. The vans have a ready-made audience that crave visual entertainment and education. In many ways, the same aspects that attract people to televi- sion also attract them to the cinema vans. Another interesting finding in the Cinema Leo audience survey was that the respondents wanted African-produced films, with Afri- can actors, produced in Africa. This fact reinforces HCI 's long-running policy to produce films specifically for the audience. Our development communication projects in India and Egypt share this policy. Cinema vans may not be most appropriate for very isolated areas of Africa. Discussions are under way for a "Cinema Donkey" project that would carry a small generator, a 16mm projector, an amplifier and a screen to isolated valleys of Kenya where roads are not passable . For instance, in northwest Kenya the Kerio Valley has a population of around 150,000 and is not easily reachable by road . Scattered throughout the valley, however, are grain grinding mills and market areas where local farmers gather. The " Cinema Donkey" could travel to these locations showing films. Handclasp feels that its policy of having a permanent on-site produc- tion crew as well as writers and editors is an important key for making culturally relevant produc- tions. National crew members and eo-writers are used as much as possible, both as a training exercise and in order to make the produc- tions truly African . The group is also moving into television and is already producing a series of child- ren 's television programmes in Cairo aimed at communicating development concepts to young audiences. • 11