Kalabars, the on-demand platform powered by Creatives Garage, is launching the inaugural edition of the Frame by Frame Festival, a film festival focusing on African Narratives.
Kalabars is a unique video-on-demand platform that allows their audience to access quality films, series, documentaries, music videos and audio content with a bias toward African stories, reclaiming the African Narrative. Like their parent organization Creatives Garage, the organization’s focus is sustainable income, learning and contributing positively to the growth of the creative economy.
Creatives Garage operates on an ethos reminiscent of a typical African village, cultivating a thriving community and building a robust ecosystem for artists to connect, learn, share ideas, and collaborate. They embrace both existing and emerging technologies to challenge existing narratives and showcase the richness and diversity of African cultures through storytelling, allowing artists to create new works, gain market access and push boundaries.
The name ‘’Kalabars’’ comes from colour bars, the traditional colour display that was shown on the TV stations before any programme came through – an ironic term as Kalabars’ platform allows users to access videos without a traditional video rerun expedient or the constraints of a typical inert broadcast plan.
Kalabars envisioned the Frame by Frame Festival following a small indie film screening they put on in June 2025 called Frame by Frame. The idea was simple: showcase short films and documentaries by Africans and the diaspora every two months. The first one was mostly friends, showed films from Namibia, Ghana, Kenya, and Sweden and felt intimate and raw in the best way. The showcase had audiences laughing, crying, and questioning everything in between.
Following the success of that intimate screening, Kalabars put out a call for bold submissions from across the continent and the global diaspora. And Africa answered loud and proud. From animations to AI-powered films, from experimental docs to spellbinding shorts, they received hundreds of submissions from 26 countries, and selected 34 incredible films from 16 African countries and the global African diaspora, including Nigeria, Cameroon, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, and, of course, Kenya.
“Skins: Dire Dawa” (Ethiopia)
Kalabars does not intend for Frame by Frame to be a mainstream, canapé-fueled film festival. Instead they are looking to present indie brilliance with stories so raw, they’ll stick to your ribs. They believe that African stories matter: the wild ones that make your aunties whisper in church, the tender ones that linger long after the credits, the rebellious ones that flip the script and spill the tea. To this end, they have curated a line up of documentaries and short films crafted by Africans and the diaspora, bursting with flavour, rhythm, chaos, and heart.
“African film is how we remember, resist, and reimagine. Every frame is a heartbeat. Every story, a revolution.” — Thayù Kilili, Frame by Frame Curator
This festival isn’t about fitting into boxes – it’s about breaking them, then filming it.
The films selected for the festival touch everything; from mythology to memory, heartbreak to humour, climate justice to queer joy, sci-fi to sacred rituals. 13 short films will be played each day, with a simultaneous online watch party available for Kalabars’ global audience across Africa and beyond.
“Thief” (Kneya)
Frame by Frame believes that African stories deserve the spotlight; the kind that makes your heart race and your eyes sting with recognition. These stories span the continent:
from the streets of Nairobi to the rhythms of Lagos, from Accra’s heat to the quiet gold of Sudan, from Joburg’s neon lights to the soft breeze in Tunis. They echo across dusty rooftops and ripple through diaspora bedrooms lit by fairy lights.”
Frame by Frame will celebrate the messy and the magical, the WhatsApp heartbreaks, the texts that were never answered, the wisdom of village aunties, the love letters that never found their way, the rituals that ground us, the risks that define us, the chaos we wade through, and the chants that lift us.
Kalabars has given us a sneak peek at a few of the selection synopses:
“THIEF” (Kenya) follows the gripping story of Oliver, a reformed ex-thief facing the dire reality of his critically ill son, Richie. Struggling with escalating medical bills, Oliver is approached by Edward, a wealthy benefactor with an unconventional proposal – a high-stakes heist targeting Donna, a mysterious figure with a hidden fortune.
“LEGADO (Legacy)” (Colombia) is a documentary series that travels through magical and lush territories through the Afro-descendant memory of Latin America, revealing intertwined stories of resistance, struggle, and cultural preservation, with the aim of understanding the strength and depth of an ancestral legacy that defies adversity and takes pride in its African roots, where the struggle for freedom, connection to the land, and celebration of life intertwine in a dance of resilience and dignity. A visual and auditory journey through a polyphony of knowledge that resonates with ancestral rhythms to rediscover a legacy that remains alive and vibrant.
“SKINS: DIRE DAWA” (Ethiopia): The film follows a circular timeline, mirroring the daily rhythms of Dire Dawa. The project expands beyond film into a textile installation, an abstract tent that houses the story and translates visual memory into physical form. It becomes a capsule of place, a piece of Dire Dawa that can move across geographies while still carrying its weight, its rhythm, its story.
“HER LOST CHILDHOOD” (Nigeria): For the girls in this film, their childhood never moves forward. They are stuck in the “down,” caught in cycles of abuse, betrayal, and silence. This film began as an expression of anger, at a society that fails to protect its most vulnerable. But as the filmmaker listened to more stories and looked into the eyes of real girls still crying, still suffering, it transformed into something else: a cry for help.
“In a Jam” (Kenya)
These are just a few of the 34 compelling stories that the Frame by Frame Festival will encapsulate. Make sure to book your tickets now so you don’t miss the chance to see them all, at the cinema or from the comfort of your living room.
Frame by Frame Film Festival will be held 27 – 28 August at the Century Cinemax, Two Rivers. 13 short films will be played each day from 6pm, with a simultaneous online watch party available for Kalabars’ global audience across Africa and beyond. You can find more details and further synopses on Creatives Garage website. Get your tickets to the festival on mookh.com.
Follow Kalabars on Instagram @kala.bars and Creatives Garage @creativesgarage.