DSTV hosts film creative summit Rumbi Katedza (Far lleft) and the MultiChoice team
Rumbi Katedza (Far lleft) and the MultiChoice team

Rumbi Katedza (Far lleft) and the MultiChoice team

By Tsitsi Ndabambi
DSTv hosted the first of a two city “Local Content Summit” for Zimbabwean film producers on Wednesday December 6 later taking it to Bulawayo on Friday December 8.

Aiming to attract standard content, MultiChoice Zimbabwe brought in from their South Africa head office Moleko Msiwa a technical specialist, Cheryl-Uys Allie head of content in Southern Africa and Connect TV executive producer Petronella Tasara.

According to Harare spokesperson Liz Dziva, the initiative was designed to allow the filmmakers to discover the opportunities available to them on DSTV platforms to showcase their productions.

In their presentations the specialists shared some videos that are acceptable and not acceptable to be slotted onto their channels and the steps on how to prepare and submit content proposals, broadcast standards and more quality control related skills.

The main focus was on what they could bring to Zambezi Magic a channel which was opened to Southern Africa. But with time just as Africa Magic now carries more for Nigerian films, noticeably Zambezi Magic now carries more Zambian content, a bit from Namibia, with Zimbabwe barely making the list.

“The summit was alright and what Moleko shared was very useful; now we know what type of equipment to use and all that is needed to produce a good film but the rest on their agenda was shared twice before,” said Fidelis Zamanga, one of the filmmakers in attendance.

“Two years ago when Zambezi Magic came to us as if they wanted to buy content from us and in 2016 when they came to the Zimbabwe International Film Festival preaching the same but still rejected our films, so their sincerity is questionable,” he added.

“I totally agree with (filmmaker) Steve Chigorimbo that their main focus has been Zambia and Kenya while side lining us and to top it up after spending so much time and resources we submitted what we discovered today might have been half baked content which they quietly dump without any feedback for future correction,” complained Fidelis.

Indeed most viewers expected to subscribe and watch the rich local talent from Zimbabwe but to their disappointment they have been forced to watch material provided from beyond our borders which they do not identify with.

As Petronella Tasara clearly outlined, viewers have an appetite to watch stories that reflect on them so it will only be fair if more of our own filmmakers are taken on board DSTV.

Jasper Mhishi a producer at Creative Thinker Inc. had a different opinion;

Filmmakers at the Content Summit

Filmmakers at the Content Summit

“The DSTV workshop was phenomenal because they brought in experts to show us how proper TV industry is run. Our situation in Zimbabwe as filmmakers is not unique. We face the same challenges as the filmmakers in South Africa, Nigeria and the rest of Africa. It was eye opening and amazing to see local creative filmmakers and journalists in one room learning and enhancing their skills.”

Another producer Kudzai Chizhande who has been disgruntled until yesterday’s summit had this to say; “We were overjoyed when Zambezi Magic was introduced to us only to see that we were dumped for other countries so at least today we had a chance to openly air our views and concerns.”

In her remarks Liz Dziva clearly explained that the summit’s purpose was not to promise filmmakers any funding although they recognised that there was a need to provide the filmmakers with reasonable financial rewards for their efforts encouraging them to self-fund or to source donors for their productions.

So far there are ten locally produced films lined up to appear on Zambezi Magic and after highlighting their expectations in terms of quality, relevance and creativity in the films they will engage more of our local producers.

Although DSTv is a popular platform, the coming on board of Kwese TV has been an eye opener for them evidently and the nonchalance and oft outright contempt they have given filmmakers as well as viewers has been revisited.

They have started engaging more with the smaller markets and suddenly found out that Africa has more countries than just South Africa and Nigeria.

You Might Also Like

Comments

Take our Survey

We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey