CELEBRITY PROFILE Loukman Ali

LOUKMAN ALI

Loukman Ali, born 1 June 1990, is a Ugandan cinematographer, screenwriter, film director, producer and Graphic Designer. After the debut of his film The Girl In The Yellow Jumper on America’s Netflix, the first Ugandan production on the American subscription-streaming platform, you’d expect the filmmaker to have changed status. But he is surprisingly nonchalant.

“Well, not much has changed, I’m still the ordinary filmmaker I was before,” Loukman Ali tells me. “I live a simple life because I’ve never been in a position where I earn money from my films; my earnings are from other projects. So, it’s not like because I did this movie, I’m some sort of celebrity. That’s not who I am,” he adds.

The Girl In The Yellow Jumper stars Michael Wawuyo Jnr, Gladys Oyenbot, Maurice

Kirya and Rehema Nanfuka, and follows the story of a man who gets drugged and taken hostage while watching TV. When he escapes, he returns home with an unbelievable story to tell.

Bits of Ali’s relaxed approach to life seep into his approach to work. “I’m aggressive when it comes to filmmaking and the art and science involved. However, the business side of things is not my area of expertise. It’s not something that I know how to do well,” he explains.

Ali might not have strong business acumen, but he has the tenacious spirit to go after what he wants. After working as a graphics designer in Norway, he returned to Uganda with his first camera and attained all the training he needed through YouTube and the internet. As early as 5 years old, already had an idea of the career path he wanted to take.

Ali was 5 when his father bought a black and white TV for the family. Growing up in

Kampala, he spent Saturday nights watching

movies on one of the only three channels available at the time. “I was lucky that both my parents were huge fans of cinema and we used to watch a lot of films together,” he says.

It became his favourite thing to do, so much so that Ali began drawing comic strips about films as a way of re-living them and entertaining himself with their storylines over and over again. At 8, after watching The Thin Red Line, he decided his career path; he would be a filmmaker. However, it was not easy for him.

“I’ve struggled with dyslexia all my life, something that affected me greatly back in primary school. It was easier for me to express myself through art, painting and drawing rather than writing.”

The disorder presents with difficulty in interpreting words, letters and symbols. To create the movies he wanted to make, he needed scripts, which had to be written – a precarious situation for him.

“I’ve always been insecure about my writing skills – I’m not a good writer. I’m doing a lot of learning and training to get my writing skills to the level I desire,” he tells me. When I ask what he has in the works, he talks about a Netflix scriptwriting project he recently got shortlisted for.

“Now, that excited me a lot; being the only Ugandan shortlisted, yet so many good writers, most of whom I admire greatly, had participated. Getting that second stamp of approval from Netflix means that my efforts to spruce up my writing skills are paying off,” he effuses.

However, Ali is tight-lipped about this particular project and hopes it will go through to the end. For someone whose credits include movies such as Monday, The Bad Mexican, The Blind Date, Sixteen Rounds, and The Girl In The Yellow Jumper, it’s hard to fathom why Ali would be insecure about his writing. He could as well enlist the services of a good scriptwriter.

“It has always been important to me to aid my journey of telling stories, the cornerstone of it all is writing,” he explains. “Yes, I can get someone to write, but if I can’t connect to the story, I won’t be interested. That’s just who I am.”

“I’m also quite critical of my work,” he continues. “I set such high standards for myself that when I don’t meet them, I am the first person to tell myself that I’ve fallen short. Some people call it ‘imposter syndrome’. The whole world will come to me with praises that this and that was good and all that, but until I’m happy with the project, I’ll not believe them even for a bit. I know what a good movie is because I’ve been inspired by movies. Until my movies get to that level, I shall not stop learning and unlearning.”

The same can be said about The Girl in The Yellow Jumper, which, upon its debut on Netflix, sparked a flurry of mixed reactions across social media.

“As I’ve said, I’m always learning and unlearning. That film was done in 2019. Since then, I have done much better productions. But, you can’t say that to someone who is watching it now, so I completely understand. And most of the criticism I get is valid.”

“I appreciate people who critique my work and give me constructive advice. I encourage this a lot. Someone dropped a comment on 16 Rounds asking why I had made the assassin a Muslim. At first, I was baffled by this, but when I probed him about it, I learned that the bike the character rode had Arabic insignia scribbled on it. Now, that was something I too hadn’t paid attention to, because the bike belonged to a random guy we met on the road. But that was a clear indication that people are not just watching, they are paying attention to detail. This is what every creator desires.”

On his future projects, Ali tells me he’s working on three; Damba a feature film; a sequel of 16 Rounds, a TV show about the music video business; and another short film. These, he says, all carry the same elements he has gotten revered for: unpredictable storylines, skilful cinematography, great editing and overall, entertaining.

“If I start changing things now, I’ll be betraying myself because this is who I am. This is what I’d like to watch. And I believe there are a bunch of people who enjoy my art the way it is. I’ll stick to that,” he concludes our chat.