Chris Patrick: Destined to Reach Great Heights Through Acting

 

Acting is something that comes naturally to him. And while many in their final years in high schools were busy preparing for their final exams, ‘Chris’ Patrick Ng’ang’a was producing his first movie, Point of No Return. That was while at Mwiruti Secondary School in Nakuru County with a one of his teachers, who had seen his potential in acting, nurturing him. As the movie title says, he had reached a point of no return in his acting, literally, and the way forward was to keep on marching!

  To match on he did, and in the process had produced several movies. Not until you watch one that you realize the 26 year old man, a talented scriptwriter, is going places. Though he confesses he is a lover of Nigerian movies, a fact which has played a significant influence to his productions, he digresses his plotlines follow similar scripts but are informed by every day happenings around him and the country in general.

  Take for instance his second movie, The Evidence, whose theme many can identify with. A whistleblower has a dossier with incriminating evidence that has the potential of ruining the political career of a corrupt government official. Unfortunately, he is eliminated a la Jacob Juma style before he could make his evidence public.

  Dark April is another production of a dubious non-governmental organization (NGO). This NGO, it can be noticed, is one of many such briefcase enterprises replete in the country siphoning money from donors ostensibly to help uplift the welfare of the society’s downtrodden. On paper, such organization is doing commendable work contrary to what is on ground with donors chipping in to ‘help’ while in essence they are lining the pockets of the few.

  Patrick, an IT diploma holder, says some of his movies are informed by the need to preserve and protect African cultural values and heritage. This would be a hard sell, especially to the young generation, seeing how they have copied western life and values.

  Though his movies are done in Kiswahili and English, he would have gone a notch high with little incorporation of sheng, the lingua franca of the young generation who I think would make a good target audience.

  It is not all rosy in the movie industry as the young enterpriser, who runs a computer business, has to deal with piracy. “It can be demotivating to learn what you have worked for and invested heavily in had been pirated and someone is reaping where they never sowed,” he says.

  More, financial constraints can prolong the production of a movie. But nevertheless, he is upbeat writing more scripts and producing new releases. His latest one, which will premiere later this April, is titled The Silence of Darkness. It is a romantic comedy centering around two different people, Dan and Cate. The former is living an American life but married to the latter. It is more like a marriage of convenience – a come we stay and see if we like it comical affair - than a legal bonding!

  Most of his movies are aired on Vision TV, a media outlet of Kenya Assemblies of God Churches.

  He surmises by saying, “there are no limits to what one can do.”