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Richard James Cosnett

Yeukai Karengezeka-Chisepo Arts Correspondent
Zimbabwean-born Hollywood actor-cum director Richard Cosnett better known as Rick who is among the special guests at the ongoing film festival shared a number of tips that can improve quality of our local film productions.

Rick is popularly known for his roles on the Hollywood block buster series like “Quantico”, “Vampire Diaries” and “The Flash”.
Speaking at the Filmmakers Forum Workshop, Rick encouraged filmmakers and actors to strongly believe in themselves and come up with authentic and intriguing film ideas and characters within themselves.

“For you to become a successful actor or filmmaker you need first to strongly believe in yourself and be passionate about your dream. This helps you to have strong determination and come up with amazing things in your acting career like I did.

“In everything you do just be yourself and stop trying to be a copycat because you will fail, once we do this I believe our Zimbabwe film industry will become viable,” he said.

The Chegutu-born star produced and directed his first short film titled “The Letter Carrier” that is not yet released and filmmakers had the opportunity to view it and share their comments.

Rick’s visit was facilitated by Zimpapers TV Network (ZTN) and they have promised to bring in more talented Zimbabweans who are thriving in film industry living abroad.

“Our aim as a production house is to bring in a lot of Zimbabwean stars excelling abroad because our aim is to reboot our television and film industry. We feel is they come and exchange notes with our local filmmakers we would end up producing great movies and programs that match Hollywood standards,” said Nicote Abote ZTN managing executive.

ZTN is particularly proud of its association with Rick and his presence in the country goes a long way in cementing the production company’s celeb-pull-factor, after successfully getting another hot Zimbabwean Hollywood export Tongayi Chirisa part-take in their productions.

A number of workshops are being conducted until Friday by local film gurus as well as international ones like Hollywood producer “Christian Epps, Hollywood banker and director Andy Hodges and Eric Witzgall. The film festival galore is running until Saturday.

Exciting movies and documentaries from local, regional and international productions are being screened for free at Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF) Hubs and awards ceremony will mark the end of the festival. The festival was sponsored by Dendairy,Capri and Zambezi Magic.