Skip to main content
How to Build a Library film image; people sifting through books and papers

How to Build a Library

This event has passed

What does it mean to decolonize a library? In How to Build a Library, Kenyan visionaries Angela Wachuka and Wanjiru Koinange attempt to answer that question. Their mission: to restore Nairobi’s McMillan Memorial Library and its satellite branches — dilapidated leftovers of a segregationist past — into vibrant, inclusive community hubs. But archival dust isn’t the only thing the pair must contend with, and corrupt bureaucracy, donor politics, and a colonial infrastructure still embedded in the architecture of knowledge all stand in their way.

With intimate access and a sharp observational eye, wife-and-husband directing team Maia Lekow and Christopher King chronicle a seven-year effort to reclaim civic space, democratize access, and challenge the epistemic violence of Western cataloguing systems like Dewey Decimal. Through stalled renovations, uncomfortable compromises, and moments of quiet defiance, How to Build a Library shows that reimagining the future requires grappling with the past. It’s a moving portrait of two women rewriting not just the shelves but the rules.

 

Media Partner

Tyee logo

Community Partner

Directors
Credits
Country of Origin

Kenya

Year

2025

Language

In English and Swahili with English subtitles

Links
Content Warning

Coarse language

PG

Open to youth!

101 min
Art, Music & Photography Black Cinema Documentary Human Rights & Social Justice Women Directors
Circle & Square Productions, One Story Up

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Roger Ross Williams, Geoff Martz, Judy Kibinge, D.D. Wigley,Maxyne Franklin, Nikki Heyman, Geralyn Dreyfous, Regina K. Scully, Tegan Acton, Emma Pompetti, Melony Lewis, Adam Lewis, Jamie Wolf, Nathalie Seaver

Producer

Maia Lekow, Christopher King

Screenwriter

Christopher King, Maia Lekow, Ricardo Acosta

Cinematography

Christopher King, Wambui Muigai, Emma Nzioka, Ronald Ronics

Editor

Christopher King, Ricardo Acosta, Maia Lekow, Michael Onyiego

Original Music

Katya Mihailova, Maia Lekow, Daniel Hoffknecht

Maia Lekow headshot

Maia Lekow

Maia Lekow is an award-winning Kenyan director, producer, composer, and musician whose multidisciplinary approach fosters intimate and emotionally resonant storytelling. Working alongside her husband and creative partner Christopher King, the duo tell deeply personal, multilayered stories that explore identity, culture, resilience, and the legacies of colonialism. Her debut feature documentary, The Letter (2019), was Kenya’s official submission to the 93rd Academy Awards, earning international acclaim for its tender and powerful portrait of family, religion, and intergenerational conflict. Her second feature, How to Build a Library, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Filmography: The Letter (2019)

Christopher King headshot

Christopher King

Christopher King is an award-winning director, editor, cinematographer, and producer originally from Melbourne, Australia, who has called Nairobi, Kenya home since 2007. King co-founded the Nairobi-based production company Circle & Square Productions with his wife and creative partner, Maia Lekow. Together, they craft deeply observational, cinematic documentaries that bridge continents and challenge narratives. Their debut feature, The Letter (2019), was Kenya’s official submission to the 93rd Academy Awards, earning international acclaim for its intimate style. Their second feature, How to Build a Library, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Filmography: The Letter (2019)

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Frankenstein

Dir. Guillermo del Toro
149 min

Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Checkpoint Zoo

Dir. Joshua Zeman
107 min

The amazing true story of the rescue of thousands of animals trapped on the frontline at an Ecopark when Russia invades Ukraine in 2022.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

An Taibhse (The Ghost)

Dir. John Farrelly
92 min

A winter caretaker and his troubled teenage daughter take up residence in a remote country mansion in this harrowing mid-19th century Irish makeover of The Shining.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

Oddity

Dir. Damian McCarthy
98 min

The aptly-titled Oddity is a fiendish and disturbing horror movie about a blind seer, her murdered twin, and the psychiatrist widower's new girlfriend...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

Predators

Dir. David Osit
96 min

"Punk'd for pedophiles." That's what Jimmy Kimmel called Chris Hansen's true crime/reality TV show, To Catch a Predator (2004-07). Two decades on, David Osit examines why the show made such an impact, for good or ill, and sits down with Hansen himself.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Outcasts

Dir. Robert Wynne-Simmons
95 min

One of earliest examples of "folk horror", The Outcasts (1982) draws on Irish mythology and folktales to eerie effect. Simple Maura is rumoured to have spent the night with the mythical fiddler Scarf Michael, with dire consequences for all... Screening followed by a panel discussion on Irish horror.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema