HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY
Filmforum Ludwig Ticketshop
In the heart of Nairobi, the McMillan Memorial Library — a colonial-era library once reserved for white people — is falling into ruin. Shiro Koinange and Angela Wachuka are undertaking to renovate and decolonise this place in order to turn it into a space dedicated to art, culture, education and exchange. For eight years, filmmakers Maia Lekow and Christopher King followed their journey, between negotiations with the local community, politicians and patrons, and the challenges of reinventing a legacy. HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY is an invitation to dialogue about the reappropriation of places steeped in history — a collective gesture of memory, creation and transformation.
Cooperation: Theodor Wonja Michael Bibliothek, col.lit.ive / Allerweltshaus Köln e. V., Pambazuka Swahili Kultur e. V
HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY Direction: Christopher King, Maia Lekow, DCP, OmeU, 103 min
Guests
Maia Lekow is a Kenyan musician and filmmaker. Currently performing with her band Maia & the Big Sky on international stages, Maia fuses her music with a fascination of people and culture to make films as a documentary director, producer, composer & sound recordist. She was named a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR in 2013. Her films are deeply personal, multi-layered character studies. Her documentary debut THE LETTER, made with her partner Christopher King, explores the inter-generational conflict in Maia's father's homeland on the coast of Kenya. She also composed the original score for the film, collaborating with Emmy-Award winning composer Ken Myhr. Their new film HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY celebrated its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2025.
Christopher King is an award-winning filmmaker, originally from Melbourne, Australia. He has lived & worked in Kenya since 2007 where he founded Circle & Square Productions with his wife Maia Lekow in Nairobi. A fluent swahili speaker, Christopher has worked on the bleeding edge of Nairobi's creative scene for more than 14 years as a freelance cinematographer, editor, director, producer and video artist. His first feature, THE LETTER which he co-directed and co-produced with Maia was Kenya's official submission to the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021 and was nominated for an African Movie Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Following this remarkable journey, he co-directed a second feature documentary, HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY, with Maia.