Upcoming directors dominate film-making

Standard People
BY SIMBARASHE MANHANGO Ayoung and upcoming generation of film directors and producers in Zimbabwe is making huge strides and is now dominating the local film industry.

This development has marked a new era in which local film-making skills are destined to match the Western dominance in terms of quality productions.Charles Mawungwa, one of the young local film directors, was last month awarded the NetOne’s Most-Promising-Director at the Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF) prize presentation ceremony.

The award, which runs under the theme, Closer to Film was sponsored by the mobile service provider in partnership with ZIFF, after realisation that there was abundant film-making talent in the country.

Born on October 28 1985, Mawungwa began his professional carrier in 2005 and has to date worked with various artists ranging from music, theatre and film.

He has directed several projects including short films, The Perfect Match, Mind Games and has also produced videos for the popular gospel outfit, Zim Praise.

In an interview with the StandardLife&Style recently Mawungwa said with the current crop of young and creative film directors and producers, Zimbabwe had the capacity to be among the best in Africa.

“The young generation of film directors and producers that we have are definitely creative and hungry, which is one of the entrepreneurship attitudes that did not exist in the mid 90’s to 2000,” he said.

“It is now only a question of time; film-making is a business and as film-makers we need to find the right formula to film-making so as to fully explore our artistic capacity.”

He added: “Look at what the Nigerians have done to their film industry and the wide viewership and exposure they have earned themselves in the past 10 years or so. The concept is simple; embracing the digital approach and bringing in more investors.”

However, bringing in investors to facilitate the development of the film industry is debatable considering that nothing has been done by artists to raise awareness on the importance of developing film.

The potential local sponsors have also not been approached so as to initiate their participation in building and improving the arts.

“It starts with the artists, sometimes we tend to be too hard on ourselves. Artists should never compare local productions with Hollywood ones which are far ahead. But instead, local film directors and producers should work towards producing films that meet the digital age and come up with projects that can capture the attention of possible investors,” said Mawungwa.

He also added that the quality of local film productions had improved considerably.

Mawungwa, who recently finished editing the film The Gentleman, said he is now working on a new project, titled Circle of Death, Secret of the Keepers’ which he says is a bigger venture than his previous works.

“This is a bigger project on a higher level and there has got to be noticeable developments that come attached with each project,” he said.His achievements include producing the video for Alexio Kawara’s hit song Shaina and also winning the Multi Choice Award in 2010 for best short film project with The Search.