[Question] What is Hot Sun Foundation?

[ Answer] Hot Sun Foundation is a unique non-profit organization. I am primarily a filmmaker and only came into this work because there was such an overwhelming need. It wasn't my plan, but now it has become my passion.
Hot Sun is training and developing slum youth talent with the necessary toolkit of skills so that they can tell their own stories and make their own films. Slum youth are active members of the team that developed KIBERA KID and the TOGETHERNESS SUPREME Feature Film. The feature film is a global platform for their talents in acting, writing, camerawork, music, painting, and visual art.

[Question] How did Hot Sun Foundation get started?

[ Answer]The idea started with the TOGETHERNESS SUPREME pilot film, KIBERA KID in 2005. That film set me on an unexpected journey. I had planned to the do the short film as my thesis film for the University of Southern California (Los Angeles) Film School. I'd spent a lot of time in the slums in Nairobi and based the story around a friend of mine who'd been attacked by a gang of thieves. I expected to shoot the film, and move on...but that wasn't possible!
As a film director, I have learnt to spot talent. During the shooting of the KIBERA KID, I met so many talented actors, writers, filmmakers in Kibera. Yet I was struck by the fact that they had few, if any, opportunities to develop their talents. Something needed to happen. But I was also struggling with my own career, and trying to graduate from film school, so that consumed me for the next year or so. In 2006, after I graduated and after the unexpected success of the KIBERA KID, I realized I had to find a way to further develop those talented people I met in Kibera, and thus the Hot Sun Foundation was born.

[Question] What is the relation of Hot Sun Foundation and Hot Sun Films?

[ Answer]Hot Sun Films was the first organization, which we started in 2004 as primarily a film production company. It was after KIBERA KID that I realized I needed to expand my vision. I wanted to develop the talents in Kibera and have them tell their own stories from their perspective. This was something that would take time, and require support without the expectation and pressure, of a monetary return. We needed a non-profit organization.
The Foundation is a project of Hot Sun Films, and the two share some key people, such as Mercy and myself. There is some overlap, for example, TOGETHERNESS SUPREME is being produced by Hot Sun Films and by the Foundation. The difference is that Hot Sun Films is focused more specifically on film production, while the Foundation is focused on education, talent development, and training.
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