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Herald Reporter
The Zimbabwe Television and Film School of Southern Africa has intensified training of filmmakers in anticipation of high demand of film content once the digitisation exercise currently underway is completed. After digitisation, the country is expecting to have 12 television channels. So far, the Zimbabwe Television and Film School of Southern Africa has held workshops in various parts of the country teaching aspiring filmmakers the core subjects of film such as production, script writing and cinematography.

The school’s director, Dr Rino Zhuwarara, told journalists on the sidelines of a training workshop in Harare recently that although they were facing challenges, they had managed to train a significant number of filmmakers.

“The current workshop is, in fact, one of the many workshops that have been held across the country. The first training workshop was held in Chiredzi early February and from Chiredzi the training team of lecturers moved on to Mutare where they trained quite a number of people. The team went to Masvingo where they trained about 47 people and then Bulawayo where they trained about 54 and this time around they are training here in Harare.

“There are about 50 aspiring filmmakers who have opted to be trained on an urgent basis. Essentially what is happening is that the film school is providing skills on cores subjects which really drive the film sector.”

Dr Zhuwarara said the film school was facing numerous challenges, chief among them lack of funds and a reliable library.

Dr Zhuwarara said there was a ready market for film producers after the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe set a fund to assist them.

“Right now the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe has actually established a commissioning committee,” he said.

“The committee is in the process of sponsoring production projects which are taking place in Bulawayo, Lupane, Masvingo and Mutare so right as I speak now there is a programme deliberately meant to support filmmakers so they can go to produce local content.”