Actor Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine Is Winning Awards Across The Globe For His Documentary About Ugandan Photographer Kibaate Ssalongo

One of the highlights of this year’s Silicon Valley African Film Festival was getting to know Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine and watching his film, Memories of Love Returned, which ultimately captured the Best Documentary Feature prize.

Actor Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine Is Also An Award-Winning Filmmaker

Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s impressive resume includes roles in “Treme,” “Bosch,” “Heroes,” “The Knick” and “The Lincoln Lawyer,” but he’s probably best known for his critically acclaimed portrayal of Ronnie, the complex anti-hero in Lena Waithe’s Showtime series “The Chi.”

Born in the U.S. to Ugandan parents, Mwine’s documentary about Ugandan photographer Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo is a beautiful tribute to the late artist and a compelling story about the complex social dynamics at work in the small village where Ssalongo once lived and worked.

“I’ve always felt connected to Uganda because I’ve been going back there since before I can remember,” Ntare told BOSSIP.

Ntare first met Kibaate on April 24th, 2002, when his car broke down in the small town of Mbirizi, Uganda. While waiting for his vehicle to be repaired, he happened to discover the small photo studio owned by Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo. Moved by the powerful portraits Kibaate had taken over the course of his career, which began in the 1950s and continued until his death in 2006, Ntare’s chance encounter with the photographer launched a 22-year journey documenting and exploring Kibaate’s life and photography and the profound impact it had on Ntare and the lives of the entire community he documented.

“My car broke down and I stumbled upon his studio and discovered his incredible work,” Ntare told BOSSIP Sr. Content Director Janeé Bolden. ” As normal, I’m walking around with the camera, so I filmed meeting him and discovering his photos. He had thousands of negatives in a sack.”

And I was like, “Your work has to be seen! We’ve got to get it out somehow.”

Ntare said his original plan was to organize a photo exhibit or help put together a book of the portraits.

“The last thing that was on my mind was a film,” Ntare recalled. ” I didn’t know what would be possible. Unfortunately, he passed away before I could keep my promise. So I was sort of haunted by that and went back to his village and started finding people he’d photographed and reconnecting with them, trying to get more stories from them.”

“At that point, I’d shared some of the clips I’d put together, like little two-minute teasers of visits, I shared those with Steven Soderbergh and he was like, ‘What do you need to finish this?'” Ntare said, revealing how Soderbergh came aboard as a producer, helping to bring him closer to fulfilling his promise. Soderbergh’s investment provided Ntare with the means to create an exhibition of Kibaate’s photos which would lay the groundwork for a film.  “When I started to find people Kibaate photographed and hearing some of their stories, I was like ‘I think I have a possible film here.’ Then when it came to mounting the exhibit, I was like that could be the frame for the piece.”

Ntare named the exhibit ‘Memories of Love Returned,’ and the film documents how the event drew visitors from Mbirizi and beyond, who came and identified themselves and loved ones in the photographs, telling anecdotes about the people who sat for Kibaate.  The exhibit also opened the door to major revelations about Kibaate’s family, which included multiple wives and children, and all the emotions that come from the different relationship dynamics among them.

“The thing that took me by surprise was all of the drama in the family,” Ntare told BOSSIP. ” Which I shouldn’t be surprised about in any family. Especially a family of that size.”

As the exhibit continued, Ntare began to catch wind of some of the family members’ discontent.

“I was really taken by surprise during the exhibit,” Ntare remembered. “I was starting to hear things… this infighting, and I thought well, it had to be part of the story.”

One of the more disheartening rumors was that Ntare was making money by exhibiting Kibaate’s work and not sharing the proceeds with his family members, some who were struggling financially following the photographer’s death.

“I just realized there was all these back door channel conversations going on,” Ntare recalled. ” I had to clarify for them that I hadn’t made a penny. If anything, it cost me a fortune to digitize everything. I’m not making money off of this.

Ultimately the Ssalongo family came to understand Ntare’s intentions were pure, but watching them navigate the void left by Kibaate’s death is key to a story about his legacy.

The scope of the film stretches far beyond the ‘Memories of Love Returned’ exhibition and the Ssalongo family dynamics. The film also explores Ntare’s relationship with his parents and their homeland. Ntare also makes space for interesting stories about gender and social politics.  One of the most interesting parts of the film focuses on a woman who appears in multiple portraits by Kibaate.  As locals speculate about the rumors surrounding this controversial local female business owner, it’s impossible to ignore the contrasting reaction when Kibaate’s reputation with women is raised.  Yet another important element of the film is Ntare’s revelations of how Kibaate’s intimate portraits of same-sex friendships and possible couples stand in stark contrast to the current climate in Uganda, where an anti-gay bill puts threatens the safety and freedom of queer Africans.

Throughout our conversation, the actor mentions synchronicity, specifically how the timing of his film’s success coincides with one of the most anticipated roles in his career. Mwine stars opposite Taron Egerton in the highly anticipated new AppleTV series “Firebug” from celebrated writer Dennis Lehane, due out in 2025. But it’s impossible to miss the synchronicity of South African actor John Kani being present for the screening of Memories of Love Returned and comparing it to his play “Sizwe Banzi is Dead,” which Kani wrote along with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona.  

“Those memories in those photographs reminded me of my own beginning, the play I wrote called “Sizwe Banzi is Dead,” for which I won the Best Actor on Broadway and was nominated for Best Author as well,” Kani said to Mwine after watching Memories of Love Returned. “It’s about a photograph of a man he took of himself with a cigarette lit, standing beautifully, to send to his wife who is in the rural community, to say, ‘I am fine my wife. I found a job.’  That photograph became the nucleus for us to research our own existence. When we explored and opened it up, we found out how Black people, how African people, have been dehumanized by the colonial systems, followed by apartheid, and the only thing that keeps their existence, their memories, their lives, were these little photographs that they took when they were young by parents, grandparents and they hold on to that. Those photographs are not just memories, they’re recordings of the history of their lives. When I was watching at the end of the exhibition when people began to take pictures of their own families, you gave them back their own memories. If you don’t see anything this year,  see the memories of those photographs. It will remind you of your own history, your own beginning. Look at the faces that light up when they see ‘my great grandfather, my mother, my father,’. It was important for me — that statement you made and that was incredibly important that we preserve this culture. It almost had me saying, ‘Who do I know who is very rich who could make sure that every African on the continent, in the diaspora, everybody, should see this film?’

In response, Mwine revealed to Kani that the first play he performed in college was “Sizwe Banzi is Dead.”

So now dear readers your homework assignment is to read or see “Sizwe Banzi is Dead,” and try to see Memories of Love Returned if you can — and in the meantime don’t delay to take every opportunity to look around and find the art around you, whether that means exploring that local gallery in the small town where your car has broken down or the film festival happening in the city where you live.  Go seek out the art. Experience the art. Live the art. Make the art.  This is how Memories of Love Returned has inspired us.

You can follow Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine on Instagram at @bewareoftime.