Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (OYO) has once again achieved a great milestone as their new film, Kapana got nominated at two Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) film festivals in the United States.
The film which aims to raise awareness on social issues like HIV/AIDS has been selected for the 12th Annual Fargo-Moorhead LGBT Film Festival and at one of the leading LGBT film festivals in the United States ‘Out on film’.

Destined to inform, entertain, educate, and enrich the LGBTQ culture by showcasing films by, for, and about the LGBT community and its allies, both festivals will be transitioning to an online-only experience, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“These nominations prove that the movie is of good quality and that the cast and crew did a marvelous job on the movie,” said the director and producer of the film, Phillipe Talavera.

Talavera further added that, Kapana will encourage people to start to talk positively about changes that need to happen at a legislation level.
“It’s important to me that people realise all over the world that in Namibia we also have gays and lesbians and they also deserve to have a happy life and to live and love who they want to love. That’s a good, positive image that we can give about Namibia, which I hope will have positive repercussions at a national level,” he explained.
The LGBT-themed film follows a love story between an insurance broker and meat (kapana) vendor and it explores themes of love, secrecy, fears, and commitment.

Kapana was written by Senga Brockerhoff and Mikiros Garoes and stars award-winning actor, Adriano Visagie, Simon Hanga among many others.
Produced by Wojtek Majewski and Edited by Haiko Boldt, Kapana was made with a persuasive screenplay, which helps make this a non-generic story that engages its audiences on a personal level.

Talavera encouraged supporters to log on the festivals online platforms to buy passes, stream, and look at the films that are part of the festivals.
“If you buy a pass, you will be able to see quite a lot of films. A few films might not be available to us in Namibia, but quite a lot of the films that would be screened by the festival should be open to people in southern Africa. So hopefully we can also benefit from those festivals,” he concluded. 
– ashikololo@nepc.com.na