About Pearlwood

Pearlwood is an umbrella organization for film makers in Uganda and following a formal understanding amongst the different guilds on 19^th November 2018, it was also adopted as a trademark/brand for Uganda’s film industry.

 

Guilds are semi-autonomous member based organizations and as a consortium, Pearlwood comprised of 6 Guilds with membership across the country and these guilds plus their respective members include but not limited to:

	Guilds	Registered Name
1	Actors Guild	Association of Film Actors Uganda Limited
2	Exhibitors Guild	Association of Cinematographic Exhibitors Limited
3	Producers Guild	Association of Core Film Producers Uganda Limited
4	Cinematographers Guild
5	Writers Guild
6	Editors Guild

Having been founded on November 19^th 2018 and following an understanding with the different guilds; the trademark has been adopted as the national brand. The guilds are independent member-based organizations working together and governed by the Constitution of Pearlwood that establishes a Pearlwood Board of Directors comprising of two delegates from each member guild.

 

Pearlwood Board of Directors

	Delegate’s Name	Guild	BOD Office
1	Namatovu Aisha	Producers	Executive Secretary
2	Mzee Bwanika Julius		Board Member
3	Ssegawa Julius		Board Member
4	Abwalo Ruth Kurt	Actor	Board Member

 

Vision

Building the next African film capital.

 

Mission

Uniting film-makers for socio-economic development across the Film Value Chain.

 

On-Going Activities

The core activity is mobilizing filmmakers in Uganda to collectively manage their rights and interests for sustainable growth. In execution of this obligation, Pearlwood in collaboration with the National Information & Technology Authority (NITA-U) and Ministry of Gender Labour & Social Development; manages the national digital database for the film sector in Uganda.

 

Pearlwood has also partnered with Next Media Services to provide a Video-on-Demand platform to promote and distribute Ugandan films. Next Media Service is the biggest media house in Uganda and this partnership is to provide the visibility of the film sector towards improving the socio-economic well-being of the practitioners.

 

Pearlwood also contributes to the wellbeing of society through making films based on annual themes where best participants and films are celebrated at the annual Pearlwood Awards and Festival.

 

With support from UNDP, Pearlwood has also established a basic production hub to enhance the quality of films produced by members. In addition to organizing capacity building workshops, members have nearly free access to the available standard production equipment.

 

Pearlwood has also partnered with SELAM (a Swedish INGO), Uganda Musicians Association (UMA) and Foundation for Human Rights Initiative to implement the Pan African Network for Artistic Freedom (PANAF) in Uganda and Africa at large; in advocacy for artistic rights and freedoms.

 

Pearlwood also contributes to the wellbeing of society through making films based on annual themes where best participants and films are celebrated at the annual Pearlwood Awards. See the 1^st Pearlwood Awards 2020 & Launch of FOR HER 2021 theme.

 

Film is a smart vehicle of ideology, a strong mobilization, information and communication tool with outstanding potential to provoke purposed discussion and action. As lately observed, anything appearing in films can easily penetrate into society. The process of the influence caused by films can be voluntary, involuntary, accidental, conscious or unconscious.