Hacker Cinema
Who Killed Captain Alex?
2010 · Film · 68 min
Directed by Nabwana IGG
War erupts between a mafia group and soldiers.
3 positive2 neutralfrom 5 commenters
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8 comments on Hacker News
>we should be overjoyed that billions of people will now be enabled to use new tools to create art, music, poetry, and literature tailored to their specific desires
They aren't creating anything of the sort. The AI is creating it for them, and not to their specific styles, to a rough approximation based on the work of existing human artists that already exist in its data set.
Look at the Sora AI video generate from the prompt "an alien blending in naturally with new york city, paranoia thriller style, 35mm film"[0]. It's awful, particularly in its rendition of the background, and misses on almost every element of what one can assume the intent behind the prompt was. No actual cinematographer would intentionally make this.
And billions of people? Sorry? On what planet do billions of people have access to AI but not the tools and opportunity to create art on their own? Ugandans with $200 made a movie enjoyed by people the world over[1], every second of which has far more heart and actual creative value than anything AI could generate. AI isn't liberating anyone from anything, it's shackling people to centralized, corporate generators of mediocrity.
[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfiq6-NVJWA
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_Captain_Alex%3F
> Squibs used to simulate gunshot wounds were made from condoms filled with red food coloring and tied to fishing lines before being taped to the actors' chests; Nabwana previously used cow blood, but was forced to discontinue it after one of his actors developed brucellosis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_Captain_Alex
On the more lighter side of things:
> Throughout the film, a panpipes cover of the Seal song "Kiss from a Rose", as well as a piano cover of the ABBA song "Mamma Mia", can be heard.
>no other countries — apart from Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, all then under Japanese influence — adopted such an excellent and fun idea.
Some movie theaters in Uganda also have live commentary and translation, provided by "video jokers". You can hear such commentary by VJ Emmie in the famous Ugandan action movie "Who Killed Captain Alex?", which you can watch on the Official Wakaliwood Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEoGrbKAyKE
Despite the very low budget, the movie is surprisingly entertaining, and the commentary makes it even better.
> Indian action films typically don't strive for believable action scenes, like American films do. Instead, they apply the effects and stunts excessively -- they go over the top in a major way.
This is precisely what Americans love about it though. Indian cinema comes from a completely different tradition than Hollywood, and it’s a breath of fresh air. Action movies should be more silly. It’s just entertainment.
A great analogy is to the Ugandan action films as well (go watch “Who Killed Captain Alex” right now if you haven’t). They are doing something completely new that breaks the Hollywood tropes. We really need more of this, because the American film industry has reached a creative dead end.
More like Wakaliwood is a contender to Nollywood. The Nigerian film industry is the biggest in Africa, to the point that some people in other African countries complain about Nigeria's dominance. VJ Emmie even jokes about this in his commentary to Who Killed Captain Alex?.
"Who Killed Captain Alex?" exceeded my expectations more than any other movie I've watched. I got the impression that everyone involved was genuinely passionate about making the best movie they could, which more than made up for the budget limitations. I'd rather watch something like this than a >$100M movie where it's all designed by committee for the broadest appeal possible. Even the VJ commentary, which I at first thought would be annoying, turned out to be entertaining.
Live narration lives on in some African countries as the "video joker". The narrator translates as well as adding their own jokes and commentary. You can hear an example in the only surviving copy of the famous Ugandan film "Who Killed Captain Alex?"[0] I thought it would be annoying at first, but VJ Emmie does a great job and really adds to the entertainment.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEoGrbKAyKE
It's worth watching the trailer for "Who Killed Captain Alex?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BymeLkZ7GqM
(By a weird coincidence, my coworker's cousin actually has a part in the movie.)