About Us
Stories from, by, and about people living in urban slums.
Our Story
The Slum Film Festival is a community-based annual film event founded in 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya. The festival showcases short films created by filmmakers from urban informal settlements, and by directors telling stories about life in slums, primarily across Africa.
Screenings take place outdoors in communities with limited access to cinema, including the informal settlements of Kibera and Mathare. Past editions have run from SFF 2011 through SFF 2017, typically in August or September.
The Slum Film Festival stands as a distinctive platform dedicated to stories shaped by, made within, and focused on the lived realities of urban informal settlements. By centering filmmakers who come from these communities, the festival offers a rare kind of authorship, one rooted in direct experience rather than outside observation. Its mission is to give voice and visibility to narratives that often go unheard in mainstream cinema, treating creativity as a tool for recognition and connection. Through film, the festival opens a window onto daily life in the slums, inviting audiences to see these neighborhoods not as abstractions but as places of talent, resilience, and imagination worth engaging with on their own terms.
At the heart of the festival lies a commitment to community-based exhibition. Screenings are held outdoors in informal settlements where access to traditional cinemas is limited, transforming public and shared spaces into gathering points for collective viewing. This approach dissolves the usual barriers between film and audience, making each screening an event shaped by its surroundings. By bringing films directly to neighborhoods, the festival fosters dialogue between filmmakers and residents, encouraging a sense of ownership over the stories being told. The result is a program that feels less like a showcase and more like a communal celebration, where cinema becomes a shared language and every gathering reinforces the cultural vitality of the communities it serves.
Beyond screenings, the festival nurtures emerging talent through mentorship, workshops, and collaborative learning opportunities designed for filmmakers working in resource-constrained environments. These programs emphasize skill-building and artistic exchange, helping participants refine their craft while connecting with a wider network of peers and industry figures. Panel discussions and community events extend the conversation further, linking film to broader themes of social change, representation, and urban life. Through these activities, the festival positions itself as more than an annual event, functioning instead as a year-round hub for creative development. By investing in filmmakers and audiences alike, it strengthens a growing movement that uses cinema as a means to document, reflect, and imagine new possibilities for life in the slums.
Vision
Our vision is to develop a network of partnerships with slum-based media production groups, connecting communities, places, and screen cultures that share a common goal: to put cameras into the hands of residents and bring their stories to wider audiences.
Objectives
- Raise public attention to informal human settlements through the moving image.
- Promote diverse films that reflect the creativity of people living in slums.
- Support and showcase media production groups based in informal settlements.
- Encourage outdoor community screenings where cinema access is limited.
Get Involved
Filmmakers from slums, or telling stories about slums, are invited to submit short films for consideration. The festival also welcomes partners and supporters who share an interest in urban development, human rights, and the arts.
Meet our partners or reach the team to learn more.