MULTI-AWARD-WINNING veteran author and film producer Tsitsi Dangarembga has challenged stakeholders in the filmmaking sector to put in place measures that allow for the production of saleable quality motion pictures.
Dangarembga told NewsDay Life & Style that a thorough groundwork on resource allocation and enablement has to be done through roping in experienced and globally reputable consultants who come through a government tender board.
She was responding to the deliberations of the recently held Film Sector Re-engagement Meeting on Film Strategy Development.
“I see this as smoke and mirrors. Art is like sport. There are some who can and others who can’t no matter how much training and equipping is invested in them. Art is also like sport which in most cases rewards when one plays at competitive level or internationally. Neither art nor sport is produced in meetings. In my opinion, there are some basics that have to be accomplished,” Dangarembga said.
“Another thing of concern for artists is giving up their valuable time and exercise their priceless knowledge based on their hard experience without remuneration because they are expected to serve their nation without remuneration (and then pay registration fees that are among the lowest value for money on the continent). As I see it, that in other words is exploitation.”
She said the Zimbabwean film sector would never flourish “until skill, judged on the nature of product an artist produced, are the key criterion”, adding that “if we want to be competitive in an international market, we need to use the criteria of the international market”.
“One cannot treat the film industry in the same way that other industries are treated. Other industries recruit for low level jobs through advertisement. This is because the school system is constructed to give the general population the skills necessary for these industries,” Dangarembga said.
“As one becomes more specialised, headhunting becomes the practice. Headhunting involves assessing output. Film is a highly specialised sector and needs to adopt the proper procedures of such a specialised sector, with the aim of improving productivity.”
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Dangarembga, who is the founder and has been the director of the International Images for Women Film Festival until recently, added that she doubted that Zimbabwean film artists had skills to do what is necessary to put the sector in the right track.
“We are very much in a situation of the blind leading the blind. Failing to understand our limitations and failing to act to rectify these limitations will lead us further down the rabbit hole. I highly recommend hiring known veterans of the African industry such as Pedro Pimenta to consult,” she said.
“The thing is the industry should be perfected to produce a saleable project, not in financing a project. As long as that point is not clearly understood by all in it, our industry will remain moribund. There is a huge amount of competition out there. We have to be able to compete. Apart from Nigeria, no sub-Saharan African country has the population size or economy that can support a national industry.”
In similar manner, film producer Richard Tenton advises that hiring a consultant either locally or internationally could be the best way to uplift the standards of the film industry.
“Like you have submitted, the government always provides basic mitigation measures in the hope that the one size fits all. It is important they bring on board a consultant to handle the heavy staff,” he said.
“We do have competent Zimbabweans with Zimbabwe at heart, who should also be at the forefront of these programmes to bank on their international experiences.
“It’s sad that most government programmes are dictated to the industry by people without an idea of how to implement and run progressive programmes. The end result is simply huge documents for filing without providing needed change on the ground.”
