Celebrated film producer and director of ICAPA Trust Tsitsi Dangarembga, says the film On Becoming a Guinea Fowl has been a success after scooping several awards as it delves into social issues such as drug and substance abuse.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a 2024 black comedy drama film which was written and directed by Rungano Nyoni and stars Zambians Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela and Henry B J Phiri. It is a co-production of partnerships and alliances in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Zambia.
“The film On Becoming a Guinea Fowl has won five awards and 13 nominations in the British Independent Film Awards, Chicago International Film Festival, Denver Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival and the Melbourne International Film Festival just to mention a few that are easy to remember,” Dangarembga said.
“The story in On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is all about, on an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles upon the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.”
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl has drawn global attention as it challenges drug and substance abuses, toxic cultural habits and discrepancies in the execution of law, especially the observances of human rights.
Since the film’s premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the UN Certain Regard section on May 16, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl has claimed spaces for screening at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival in September and at the New York Film Festival on October 3.
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Dangarembga said 2024 had been a year of changes in the film industry. She said the multiplicity of film festivals was an indicator of cherishable growth and developments in the industry. Her own International lmages for Women Film Festival (IIFF) which closed with the multi-award-winning film On Becoming a Guinea Fowl was a resounding success.
During the recently held IIFF a workshop facilitator on script development and analysis accused African film scriptwriters and directors of not responding to global demands for a people who think locally with a globally relevant insight.
He identified it as the root cause of a highly visible lack of funding and stimulating international markets.
Dangarembga, however, took refuge in pointing out several films produced by Zimbabwean creatives that got global recognition despite minimum resources. She said this should be used as a perfectly convincing fact to make it adequate and sufficient for the African film industry.
“The On Becoming a Guinea Fowl has pictures, film images and acting that portrays composed and realistic African contexts including exposing inspirational developmental upliftment. It has stimulated an extensive passion and desire to watch African movies. This alone accounts for the real fact why the film has won numerous awards from several film festivals on each and every discipline and its results chain be it scripting, directing, producing, sound design, acting, cinematography and plenty more,” Dangarembga said.
Commenting on the recently launched National Film Strategy, Dangarembga reiterated her sentiment that there is need to acquaint stakeholders in the film industry with knowledge on how to effectively make use of the blueprint to lure sponsorship from the government and other funding sources.
“This year has been the year of filmmakers as a number of international awards have been brought into the country by actors and producers. We also had the IIFF, the European Film Festival, The National Arts Merit Awards Film Festival, The ZAFTAS and the like,” Dangarembga said.
“Each film festival had an awards ceremony which was quite motivational to several film actors. Most of all we had the privilege of watching the film On Becoming a Guinea Fowl at the Harare National Arts Gallery in Zimbabwe during this year’s edition of the IIFF.”