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Senior Arts Reporter
Organisers for the Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF) have announced the theme for this year’s edition which begins today ending on Saturday.

The four-day film festival will run under the theme “Owning Our Story” will be in both virtual and physical formats under strict COVID-19 compliance.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic stopping the festival from taking place the past two years, the organisers also owed to lack of funding.

Tonight the opening ceremony is set for Theatre in the Park in Harare.

ZIFF programmes manager Rudo Chakanyuka said profiling and documenting cultural heritage through film had become a global phenomenon.

“It has been an exciting two months since our launch in October 2021 and the response has been overwhelming.

“Our history lies in oral tradition and we are losing a lot because of lack of documentation and filming,” she said.

“The festival will feature heritage films such as American Gather and Joseph the Young Jamaican Doctor, who is trying to connect to his past through tracing herbal heritages.

“It will also showcase the cultural aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic through films Culture in Crisis and Botso.”

They also announced five films that have been selected for screening in the Smartphone short film and the Hi Five competitions.

Films like “Debt Clearance” and “Nhaka” are scheduled to be screened under the HI Five competition.

Chakanyuka said the festival is also accommodating children as they are going to be taught how to tell their own stories through animation and drawing.

“Nigerian filmmaker Victory Opeyokun and Rodney Masanga will teach children drawing and animation while another guest will be doing storytelling,” Chakanyuka said.

“The workshops will cover a wide range of film aspects including a hackathon for adult filmmakers. The hackathon will showcase solutions to problems commonly found in the film industry.”