Forty people from Victoria Falls are attending a four-day training course on creative content creation, as Zimbabwe prepares to migrate its broadcasting services from analogue to digital.
BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
The workshop, covering script writing, editing, production, directing and cinematography, started on Wednesday and ends tomorrow.
Zimbabwe Film and Television School of Southern Africa (Ziftessa) director, Rino Zhuwarara said the course, which would be rolled out countrywide, was meant to improve filmmaking skills in the country.
“The idea is to empower our filmmakers so that they acquire basic skills and funding that is required,” he told Southern Eye in an interview.
“We need to train more, in order to trigger the film production on industrial basis.
“We also need to broaden the numbers of people participating in the sector and upgrade the skills as much as we can.”
Zhuwarara said Zimbabwe’s film industry still lagged behind other countries such as South Africa’s and Nigeria’s, which have become money spinners.
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“As you know, we are not yet in a position to compare well and favourably with other countries, for instance South African and Nigeria film industry,” he said.
“They have bigger economies and players, but it is never too late for us to revive the industry.
“We have filmmakers in Zimbabwe, who have made names for themselves.
“But what has been a challenge is that we have had a very limited number of people participating in the sector.”
Zhuwarara said the training was the first of its kind in the country.
“The major achievement for me is that we have, for the first time, done what we have not done before, that is to go out to specific areas in communities and actually impact skills to those who are already in the film sector and those who have been aspiring to join this sector for basic empowerment,” he said.
Ziftessa, through ZimDigital, has already conducted similar training in Binga, Lupane and Hwange in Matabeleland North.
Zhuwarara said their next target would be people in Marondera, Bindura, Chimanimani, Nyanga, Chipinge, Chinhoyi and Kariba.
