Conceptualised by Matamba Film Labs for Women the inaugural Matamba Immersiv Festival is going to be a one of a kind event for Zimbabwe. Dedicated to virtual reality the festival is set to run from October 18 to 22. The week-long festival will be a hybrid event, allowing physical and virtual users to use their phones and VR headsets to experience 360 films and digital content from all over the globe.
The films and experiences are curated from Zimbabwe and the sub-Saharan region as well as from global content creators. The content will range from education, entertainment, children and social impact issues will be brought to the fore at the showcase.
Apart from VR screenings, the festival will be offering workshops and industry talks for those who may want to venture into new media related careers. The festival will facilitate talks with local, regional, and global industry leaders and counterparts who are utilising virtual reality technology across fields like agriculture, medicine, tourism, entertainment and gaming.
The event will also host training on 360 filming, photography, VR, the metaverse and new media for social change. Industry giants like Black Rhino VR and Electric South Alumna are in full support of the festival and some of them will be present.
In a statement Matamba Film Labs creative director Siza Mukwedini, said the festival will offer refreshing unique activities which include VR, XR, AR,MR,AI and other forms of interactive art coupled with music and other forms of entertainment.
It is pertinent that we expose Zimbabweans to the future of creative industries through festivals such as these. It is also important that we connect Zimbabweans to their regional and global peers who have already started making headways with new media. Zimbabwe is blessed with amazing creative and tech energy and it is time to merge the two.
Matamba will also host the Matamba Immersiv Incubator programme prior to the festival. The programme is being supported by Culture Fund of Zimbabwe, with funding from the European Union in Zimbabwe. The Immersive Incubator programme aims to incubate three Zimbabwean female creative artists to tell their stories through XR, VR and AR.
The incubation will see the selected artists being trained in various new mediums, connected to other VR, AR and XR experts and supported in the creation process. The art product produced by the incubation will then be premiered at the Matamba Festival in October.
The festival’s parent organisation Matamba Film Labs seeks to equip in empower the new generation of women filmmakers/storytellers with original Zimbabwean and African perspectives to produce compelling films and digital content. As such the festival is being coordinated by 3 notable women from the local media fraternity: Siza Mukwedini, Kudakwashe Makuzwa and Courage Chinokwetu.
