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Bulawayo Bureau
FILMMAKERS and producers in and around the country have been urged to grab opportunities made possible by the ongoing digitisation project to expose their talents. Zim-digital project co-ordinator Ms Florence Sigudu-Matambo, in an interview at the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services stand at the ZITF, said her team was in Bulawayo to empower and capacitate filmmakers in the Matabeleland region.

Matambo, who is also Transmedia chief executive officer, said it was important for all content producers to be part of the digitisation process.

“This is an opportunity for people in and around Bulawayo to empower themselves through the digitisation process. We’re inviting them to come to our stand at the ZITF, see what we’ve done and share ideas on how we can be in this project together. We have six fully-fledged sites that have digital equipment and we’re on 15 new sites where there has never been transmission, which are under construction throughout the country,” she said.

“Everyone is expected to be part of this project. In Zimbabwe we’ve always had one television station and we’ve relied on it for entertainment for years. We now have an opportunity for Zimbabwe to have many options. There’s a lot of opportunity and one doesn’t need to be a professional producer to come up with content.”

Ms Matambo said she was impressed by the overwhelming response from filmmakers countrywide. The Government, she added, had purchased 15 cameras so far for recording and editing studios. “As part of the project, we have people from the Zimbabwe Film School here to teach people how to start filming and how to edit. I want to encourage our content producers to come forward because support is here for them,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter how far they’ve gone with their projects. We want to help young people to create jobs for themselves and others,” said Ms Matambo.

She, however, bemoaned the lack of funding for the project, which she said had slowed down the digitisation process. “Digitisation is a process. In some areas such as Lupane in Matabeleland North, Rutenga, Karoi and Mt Darwin there has never been any transmission before in terms of television but I’m happy that we’ll soon be able to cover the whole country,” said Ms Matambo.