Let the healing begin" could as well be the clarion call of re-l claiming life as Kenyans knew it before last year's disputed presidential polls upset the apple-cart. Messages of peace, reconciliation and forgiveness have come from politicians, political wannabes, "stakeholders'; musicians, thespians and now filmmakers via the Sinema Pamoja Project.

Launched by the Kenya Film Commission (KFC) in March this year, the project brought together local filmmakers who were funded to shoot "peace films:' to be screened soon in local TV stations. The films will portray the effects of post-election violence on the life of ordinary Kenyans and why it should never happen again.

So far, the filmmakers among them, Cajetan Boy, Guy Wilson, Mburu Kima¬ni, Robby Bresson and Mary Migui, have shot films aimed at reminding Kenyans the value of peace and harmony and their socio-economic impact.
The KFC, which is mandated to develop and promote the local film industry, funded the film initiative that it feels ''will be effective in spreading the message of peace besides showcasing the artistic talent the Kenyan film industry:'

Some of the films shot under the project include; Wilson's, Why Now? Bresson's LR45, Kimani's, Tough Times and Wale Watu, a short film directed by Boy. Wale Watu tells the story of Paul (TK Kitana) and Mary (Miriam Kipirash) as two lovebirds from different ethnic com¬munities.

Other cast members in the Sh200,OOO film include; Nare, (Moses Muchai), Mary's brother Roba (Reuben Odanga) and Miriam Kipirash, who wrote the film's work-shopped script that Boy hopes, ''will be funded by KFC into a full-length featurefilm:'

Mburu Kimani's Tough Times is veined in the same marital bent involving Rono (Josephat Zia) and Wairimu (Nice Githinji) who had gone up-country to get married when the violence broke out. The film portrays love and reconciliation overcoming resistance and hatred.

The supporting cast includes; Kama (Mike Rewa), Wairimu's parents (Law¬rence Gitonga and Mukami Njiru), while Robby Bresson and Susan Wamaitha play Rono's parents. Tough Times have been co-edited together with Bresson's film, LR 45, to make, Pieces for Peace, a full-length featurefilm.

The cast and crew of the Sh380,OOO film offered their skills for free while Blue Sky and Maestro Media donated equip¬ment, transport and partial funding. Wilson's, Why Now? that is already available on YouTube,(http://.youtube.com/ watch?v=sXzMKfqWUZE), is a documen¬tary about Paul Karuri, a driver with Starliner Bus Company. It is about the real life travails Karuri ed driving past 15 roadblocks from Kis¬umu to Bomet with irate mobs baying for , and the passenger's blood.

But will Sinema Pamoja Project have any impact? Mburu Kimani thinks so. "most Kenyans live, dress, and socialize, way they see it on television and cinema is one of the strongest tools of com¬munication, and thus the best medium social change," says the producer who doing pre-production on the film, The Agenda, based on Githara Kimani's novel by the same name.

The Sass Agenda (Society for Attainme¬nt of Social Stability), is an elite or¬ganisation founded to control wealth and dealings in the underworld. Bresson contends so too. "Film is a very powerful medium that the society all the time. So, Sinema Pamoja will change people's attitudes ,about themselves:'

Boy differs arguing that a films may have little impact, "unless they are made more available and affordable to the mass¬es isn't currently the case:'

Thousands of Kenyans were internally laced by the violence and many have minimal, or no access to 'TV sets.

But KFC hopes majority of them will the films through mobile cinemas, Boy is optimistic that Sinema Pamoja could reconcile Kenyans, "by showing issues we have swept under the carpet that keep on haunting us unless we con¬front with them directly:'

Boy is currently working on his other , Obohoz and All Girls Together, a adaptation of his eponymous play.

Well, Clark Gable nose-dived under¬shirts sales when he appeared without one in a steamy scene with Claudette Colbert in, It Happened One Night, in 1934. That begged the question: If Gable's chest, and by extension the film, could affect the undershirt industry, "what about a film's impact on war, poverty, global warming, torture, obesity and junk mail?" That is the question writer Rebecca Winters poses in the March 6 issue of Time Magazine that also ran a poll on the power of films.

"Reel" changes Out of 1,002 people, 30 per cent of the respondents said a movie altered their minds about issues, while fewer than 20 per cent said a film swayed them into charity or voluntary causes. Only 10 per cent said a movie convinced them to, say, vote differently, while. . While its difficult to quantify the im¬pact of a film, some nevertheless, brought "reel" changes, albeit in small frames.

Sicko, is Michael Moore's 2007 docu¬mentary on America's "sick" health-care system compared to those of other coun¬tries. The documentary led to a change in American hospitalisation discharge rules, besides influencing universal healthcare to become a key issue in the 2008 US presidential nomination campaigns.

Former American Vice-President AI Gore presented his 2006 slide-show doc¬umentary, An Inconvenient truth, about global warming. So powerful it was that and teachers adopted it in their curricu¬lum, while in California; legislation was passed to curb greenhouse gases.

In 2004, American independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, made Super Size Me, an Academy Award-nominated film that follows his 30-day subsistence on junk food from Mc Donald's, the fast food chain. The flick documents the drastic physical and psychological effect on this junk lifestyle, by extension, how the fast food industry i' ences poor nutrition in pursuit of profit.

Consequence?

The seventh highest grossing docu-film time had MacDonald's include healthier foods on its menu; although the chain denied that the documentary influenced the move.

Fewer than 0.1 per cent of those watched Mel Gibson's 2004 cinematic effort, 'The Passion of the Christ, said they become Christians as a result, even thought 18 per said it influenced them to pray and a church more.

While cinema has its own persuasive powers not all "social change films" have had an impact.
Edward Zwick's Blood Diamond, an African thriller, exposed the correlation between and the diamond industry.
The film that starred Leonardo DiCaprio forced the industry to launch a public relations blitz about conflict free diamonds, diamond sales remained the same.

"Filmanthropy'; the aspect of making social- action campaign films has become the film thing, so much so that, in January' this year the UN launched a $100 million film fund combating media created stereotypes via film.

So, will Sinema Pamoja influence Kenyans to, vote wisely next time, shun negative ethnicity, love and tolerate each other? Only (air) time will tell.