BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO
A NEW film that is part of International Women’s Day commemorations and explores sexual abuse of women in the film industry will be pre-screened at Alliance Francaise in Harare.
The film, titled Tsitsi and produced by The Kumran Production Arts & Media Production, would be screened before selected women ahead of its grand premiere at a Ster Kinekor cinema on a date yet to be announced.
The film, which features the late actress Samantha Kapora, was written and directed by Billy Kabasa (pictured).
Tsitsi, played by Nyaradzo Matanga, is neglected by her father SaMujango (Conrad Mwanawashe) who prefers the son, Ngoni (Ngoni Vere) instead. As a result Tsitsi is forced to leave the village with her friend Frosty (Adelaide Gande) for the city where she is subjected to sexual abuse under Aunty Sugar (Kapora) who is their only contact.
A scene in the film shows Tsitsi discussing with her friend after receiving a message from a film producer that asks for sexual favours for a role. The two condemned the message and later disclosed that the unnamed producer in the film did not pay actors.
Together Help Another Woman (THAW) representative Nicolette Kulera fell in love with the film which she said could be the best tool to use in advocating for women’s and children’s rights.
Filmmaker Gail Cooper also described the production as good but, however, indicated areas which needed polishing.
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“The storyline and characters were realistic. The story was successfully conveyed. I saw interesting camera angles and close-ups but some scenes were a bit shaky. The grammar on the subtitles was bad, it had a couple of errors. Coming to acting, the father started off with correct expressions and reactions but often dropped them quickly. He was supposed to be the character not himself playing the character. Sometimes I lost the thread a little. Overall I feel it was brilliant. Well done,” she said.
Mwanawashe said they were going to work on areas highlighted in next productions.
Kabasa said they were working towards raising funds to premiere the film and were looking forward to taking it on tour.
“Our aim is to take the film out there to the people. We are planning to premiere it at any Ster Kinekor cinema, but right now we are busy raising the hefty fee which is about US$700. The ideal places are very expensive. That’s a major drawback to the film industry,”
