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Nick Zemura

Arts Reporters
When United States-based actor and filmmaker Nick Ndongamahwe Zemura was in the country recently, he took time to meet a group of film enthusiasts at the Wednesday Film Club, an idea and skill exchange forum organised by Pamberi Trust in partnership with Creative Arts Zimbabwe.

Zemura, who has produced and directed over 20 films and television productions in different countries around the world, drew from his personal life and filmmaking experience some wise words for fellow artistes, particularly filmmakers.

Many filmmakers in the country have gained exposure and experience through international workshops that have given them insight into global trends of filmmaking.

Zemura is one filmmaker who has regularly imparted information about filmmaking to his local counterparts and his recent discussion at the film club was an eye opener.

Films like “Tanyaradzwa”, “Neria”, “Yellow Card” and “Everyone’s Child” attracted international attention, but it is now difficult for current filmmakers to go beyond our borders.

Makers of yesteryear films had an advantage of working with renowned international filmmakers that were in the country that time and it is commendable that many Zimbabweans have travelled to many parts of the country to amass the knowledge and bring it back home.

Film personalities like Danai Gurira and Tongai Arnold Chirisa regularly return home from their Hollywood base to give local aspiring and established filmmakers a glimpse into the ways of international filmmaking.

A number of actors and actresses have also invaded the regional market and are flying the country’s flag high.

It was great that Zemura also took part of his time back home to impart information to counterparts in his motherland.

He shared a number of important issues with filmmakers that attended the event and spoke about his production company that has positioned itself for international breakthrough.

A positive attitude towards one’s career serves well in building life-changing opportunities, he said.

The Mirazvo Production company founder also acknowledged that Zimbabwe has talent although there are sentiments he discovered among filmmakers nowadays.

“We are getting to a point where the ones that are coming in are very passionate and the ones who are in are frustrated, leading them to be less passionate about the things they do,” said Zemura.

Talent alone, he added, is not enough because one can be very talented and yet nobody wants to work with him/her.

“You can be very talented and yet nobody wants to work with you. How you express yourself, drive yourself matters so much,” said Zemura.

Pride can discourage growth, he warned, for how can one grow and be recognised when you refuse to start with “menial” jobs in the film industry like just being a holder of equipment?.

His childhood in Murewa played an important role in moulding him from a rural boy to the vibrant filmmaker and actor that he is today.

The acting muse caught up with him as a Grade Two pupil in Murewa. His mother, perhaps noticing theatrical potential in his son, asked him to come up with a Christmas play that he would perform with cousins at church.

“This was the first time I wrote a script. I played King Herod. She gave me the appropriate costumes and from that day I got attracted to the stage. I then moved from one drama club to the next and continued writing plays,” he said.

In Form 3, he bought his first camera and started recording. After high school he transferred to Bulawayo but could not stay longer for various reasons and ended up at Seke Teachers College. It was after college that he went to the USA where his dream was augmented. In the USA, his first job was in theatre but he had to do another job at a certain hardware store to raise income for film-related endeavours. Always, at the store, he would be glued to his notebook, jotting down ideas and observations for his film scripts.

It happened that a Good Samaritan, in form of a regular female customer at the store, noticed him. In this age of personal laptops, the sight of a young man jotting down notes, sweating up with pen and paper daily puzzled the woman, who one day asked if she could see his writings.

Touched by the scripts after reading them, the woman sent one of his scripts to a certain school of film which right away accepted Zemura. And she started helping him with the fees and also bought him a laptop to use.

From then on, Zemura’s light began to grow and whenever he did a TV or film production, people always want him back, want more from him.

The open discussion alternated with screening of snippets from Zemura’s films such as “Mwana waMwari” and the Farayi Mungoshi-directed “Makunun’unu Maodzamoyo”, an adaptation of his (Farayi) father’s classical Shona novel of the same title published in 1970.

The film “Makunun’unu Maodzamoyo”, apart from targeting the international market, certainly has so much value to local literature students who are doing the book at school. The film features celebrated local musician Jah Prayzah and renowned actress Jessesi Mungoshi, who is Charles Mungoshi’s wife.

The discussion was one of the many events at the film club that have brought together filmmakers from various backgrounds.

The Film Club used to gather at the defunct Book Café and its return should be good news to filmmakers.

The club has seen individuals and organisations such as the American and Spanish embassies and the Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe contributing with their own and festival films and sometimes conducting competitions.

In Zimbabwe, there are a few institutions that train filmmakers.

Technical resources and funding has hampered the growth of the local film industry, which sometimes is referred to as “Zollywood”, a film movement similar to Nigeria’s “Nollywood”.

The Wednesday Film Club, running every week in the evening under the auspices of Pamberi Trust, has proved the best place to be for filmmakers. The open discussion or feedback after the film-screening is the gist of this initiative.

The hunger for exposure has seen new filmmakers screening their finished productions at various street corners in the city centre.

In the early evenings, the new movie makers are seen showing snippets while their crews sell CDs or DVDs to the shuffling audience.

Even those who have established names for themselves like the producers of the action-packed local movie “Go-Chanaiwa-Go” (VT-Studios) have made use of the street platforms.

However, the local movie makers now have a chance to get useful feedback through wide networks such as the Wednesday Film Club.