The Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF2018) makes its annual return for the 20th time in Harare this September. In their announcement, two things stood out.
The theme as well as the Opening Film.
In an effort to embrace the African culture, the film festival intends to spotlight Zimbabwean and African film under the theme ‘Narratives from Africa,‘said the Press Statement.
A noble effort…
In the same statement, the Festival Director Ms Nakai Matema noted African Stories as the main focus of this year;
“it is high time for us to celebrate and harness our own culture, heritage and history ourselves as Africa’s place begins to take center stage on the global stage”, she said.
The Zimbabwe International Film Festival will kick off with the locally produced comedy Cook Off as the Opening film which was directed and produced by Joe Njagu and Tomas Brickhill respectively.
Cook Off will be the first Zimbabwean film showing as an opener at the Zimbabwe International Film festival in over 10 years.
That’s half of the festival’s lifetime! 🙄
It does help that ‘Cook Off’ features South Africa-based Zimbabwean actress Tendaiishe Chitima, musician Tehn Diamond, legendary actress Jesesi Mungoshi and poet Chirikure Chirikure. Also, that to date, the film has graced various regional and international festivals including the just-ended Durban International Film Festival as well as the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), in the Netherlands.
We wait expectantly for the rest of the programme and hope to see more of both Zimbabwean and African narratives.
The ancestors know that the local film industry could use the exposure, criticism, distribution and networking.
NB: Not the type with a decade-long wait.
The Zimbabwe International Film Festival begins on the 1st of September and will include workshops, seminars, discussions, pitch sessions and collaborations.
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