This Africa Day as the many that have come before; most of us will day-dream of Pan-Africanism and celebrate how far we’ve come since colonialism. As cliche as it may sound, Africa has a lot of stories to tell.
Yup, all 54 countries of it!
Our history alone is the fodder for instilling national pride, building continental cultural connections and eventual global acknowledgement.
Nigeria boasts of a whopping 1,000 albeit low-budget film productions per year; while South Africa has the certified bragging rights as the first Academy Award-winning African film in history.
But, more specifically where is Zimbabwe in all of these feel-good facts?
With this in mind, a creative space in Zimbabwe will focus on the power of Film in recalibrating African narratives. Based in Harare’s central park, Harare Gardens; Theatre in the Park will host an Africa Day Special of Cinema in the Park. In a statement, the Theatre in the Park Producer Daves Guzha referred to the showcase as a dedicated platform for Zimbabwean film.
“Film is a powerful tool and this event is meant to celebrate Zimbabwean films. At present Zimbabwe does not have a cinema that dedicated to screening its own film productions.”
Hosted as a full-day event, the Africa Day Special edition of ‘Cinema in the Park’ will spotlight popular films that captured Zimbabwean imaginations. The list has titles such as Neria, Flame, Cook-Off and The Letter in addition to two local short films, Freedom and The Collector.
Cinema in the Park also sees Theatre in the Park collaborate with MultiChoice Zimbabwe who last year launched the MultiChoice Talent Factory. Multichoice Talent Factory is a year-long training programme for young African creatives. Last year, it had a record of applications from Zimbabwean aspirants keen to learn hands-on filmmaking skills. MultiChoice’s Elizabeth Dziva shared the television giant’s hopes for Africa’s film industry.
“We want to be part of the solution that helps to pro-actively grow this skills base while uniting the African film sector into one formalized, professional industry”, she said.
The Cinema In The Park “Africa Day Special” will end with a live music performance from the rising star Mbeu & The Mhodzi Tribe band.
