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Yaba Badoe

Brenda Phiri Entertainment Reporter
Celebrated Ghanaian – British documentary film maker Yaba Badoe will be the highlight at the upcoming International Images Film Festival that takes place on August 14- 22. The award winning Badoe, who is also a journalist will work with eight local filmmakers during a documentary making workshop. The organisers said she will also showcase her latest work “The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo.”

“The workshop is an effort by Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe to get more women involved in this genre.

“Many films have been made about African women but either through the male gaze or Eurocentric one. Documentaries are a way of women to start telling their own stories from their own point of view,” said acting festival director Karen Mukwasi.

Badoe who has over 30 years of experience in radio and television in television who is well travelled.

She has taught in Spain and Jamaica and presently she is a scholar at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana where she is completing a documentary film

This year’s IIFF will run under the theme “Women of Heart”

Mukwasi said the theme was meant to celebrate women who emerge strong despite the challenges they face daily.

She said the films at IIFF will also show that these women were not unique to any part of the world but could be found everywhere.

“This theme reflects women who are tough yet possessing a rare gift of loving unconditionally, emotionally strong and brave,” she said.

65 films from five different continents will be screened at SterKinekor 105 and Alliance Francaise.

“This year’s centre of the South will be at the National Gallery. The main festival is also adding community venues to its program.

“Screenings will be at the Lusaka Community Centre and Rutendo Hall in Mufakose,” she said.

IIFF 2015 is supported by the ACP cultures program and sponsored by the EU, AWDF, and Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust.