Isaac Nabwana

Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana (born 6 November 1973), popularly known as Nabwana I.G.G., is a Ugandan film director, cinematographer, writer and producer. He is the founder of the film studio Wakaliwood, known for producing popular ultra-low budget action comedy films. He has been compared to Quentin Tarantino due to his use of gratuitous, over-the-top violence. Nabwana first started to gain wide international attention after uploading a trailer of Who Killed Captain Alex? on YouTube in 2010 followed by the entire film in 2015. The film has gained a cult status and as of February 2026, has 10.2 million views on YouTube. He is the subject of a 2022 documentary Once Upon a Time in Uganda by Cathryne Czubek.

Personal life Nabwana was born in Wakaliga, a village in the Rubaga parish of Kampala, as one of 42 children to a Baganda family. He spent his childhood in poverty under the regime of Idi Amin and later amidst the Ugandan Bush War. His grandfather was killed by Amin's followers. While playing around the neighbourhood, Nabwana and his friends often scavenged a garbage dump, where they sometimes found martial arts manuals, through which they developed an affinity for Chinese Kung Fu. His elder brothers often snuck out to visit video halls, which were communal cinemas, typically a single room with a television. While Nabwana never accompanied his brothers to the screenings on advice of his grandmother, he always listened to his brothers describing what they saw, mostly action films starring Chuck Norris, Bud Spencer, and Bruce Lee.

As a child, Nabwana shovelled sand as a job to pay for school. In his teenage years, he took up menial work, including welding, painting, and pottery, working in these fields between the ages of 18 and 28 in hopes of being able to afford university tuition. He met his wife Harriet when he was around 30, after which he bought a property in Wakaliga and built a two-room house using terra rossa bricks he burned himself.

His film production is based in his home where he began to produce and shoot music videos since 2009. Ramon Production has involved over 44 feature films. Some of the popular films produced by Ramon Productions are Who Killed Captain Alex?, Bad Black, and Tebaatusasula. Who Killed Captain Alex is credited as the first action film in Ugandan cinema.

After releasing Who Killed Captain Alex? in 2010, it quickly developed a cult following. The version of the film released online featured the first English-language video joker (locally famous VJ Emmie), who provides a comedic commentary track over the Luganda-language film, aiding its accessibility to foreign audiences. In 2016, a Kickstarter crowdfund was launched with a goal of US$160, ultimately raising $13,000. With over 10 million views on YouTube, it is Nabwana's most popular film and it turned him into a minor celebrity. Nabwana is frequently contacted and visited in person by foreign tourists, which boosts Wakaliga's local economy. Some visitors are allowed to act in Nabwana's film projects as extras that get killed on-screen. In 2020, a street in Kampala was named "Wakaliwood Lane" after Nabwana's company.

Alan Hofmanis, a film festival director based in New York City, saw the film and subsequently traveled to Uganda and met Nabwana and asked to produce a documentary on Ramon Film Productions. Hofmanis has since moved to Uganda to help promote Wakaliwood cinema worldwide and is now an executive producer and actor at Wakaliwood. He was also given a starring role in Nabwana's 2016 film Bad Black and has been called "the first Mzungu Ugandan action movie star."

In 2025, Nabwana worked with The Renaissance Society to host an eight-week exhibition at the University of Chicago between 1 March and 27 April, featuring the premiere of Nabwana's first satirical film, If Uganda was America, along with photographic art and screenings of Nabwana's other works.

Awards In 2016, Nabwana won the audience award and Best Action Director award at Fantastic Fest for Bad Black. In 2017, Nabwana was named Best Director at Fantastic Planet Film Festival for Bad Black, sharing the award with Best Film winner for . In 2021, he received the Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC for the film Once Upon a Time in Uganda.

Filmmaking style and themes Nabwana shoots his films in Luganda, the language of the Baganda, Uganda's largest ethnic group. Nabwana is known for his action and violence mixed in with comedy in his films. He takes the action in his films to new extremes which mainly consists of gun fighting to Kung-fu and martial arts. Additionally, Nabwana's films feature a 'Video Joker' (or VJ for short), who will translate dialogue and insert their own jokes and commentary over the movie. These traits have appeared in all of Nabwana's films.

Nabwana's film budget was previously around US$200, which he used to produce several projects within a single day. As of 2024, the average budget had increased to $1000, in part due to higher overall costs following the COVID-19 pandemic. Actors do not have a fixed fee, but receive a portion of the film earnings, with Nabwana also paying for transport, food, and boarding.

2025 If Uganda was America Director, producer, writer, cinematographer Film 2025 Rolex Time Director, producer, writer, cinematographer Film