Exclusive: Watch the Trailer for ‘How to Build a Library’ Before Its Kenyan Debut at the NBO Film Festival

After debuting at the Sundance Film Festival in January and traveling the global festival circuit, How To Build a Library is finally coming back home for its long-awaited Kenya premiere. The deeply moving documentary will open this year’s NBO Film Festival this week, with OkayAfrica premiering its official trailer.

Directed by the award-winning husband and wife duo Maia Lekow and Christopher King (The Letter), the film follows Shiro Koinange and Angela Wachuka, the visionary co-founders of Book Bunk, as they breathe new life into Nairobi’s historic McMillan Memorial Library. Once a neglected colonial relic, the previously white-only establishment is reimagined as a vibrant public space rooted in radical access and community imagination.

For Lekow, the homecoming is especially meaningful: “We are honored, and have been waiting for this moment for a very long time,” she tells OkayAfrica. “This film is about Nairobi and McMillan Library. And as a Nairobi-born and bred [filmmaker], we're excited to be able to share it with everybody.”

King adds that the film was made with a Kenyan audience in mind, and says it’s refreshing to finally share it with them. "We edited the film for Kenyans. A lot of [external] audiences want more history [and] hand holding… whereas the Kenyan audiences just get it immediately, and we don’t have to explain. For us, that’s so refreshing.'”

The film will debut on Thursday, October 16, at Prestige Cinemas with additional screenings at separate locations throughout the festival. Now in its sixth edition, the NBO Film Festival returns from October 16 to 26, 2025, with a program that features more than 26 films from over 15 countries.