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Yvonne Jila (left) and Karen Mukwasi

Lovemore Meya Arts Correspondent
The International Image Film Festival has partnered with Kenya’s UDADA Film Festival for its second edition that began in Nairobi yesterday.

UDADA means sisterhood and the festival, which focuses on women’s issues will run until October 20.

The film festival screens short, feature and documentary films made by, or about women from all over the world.

IIFF programme co-ordinator Karen Mukwasi said the festival has grown over the past years and they have managed to take their products to countries like Uganda, Malawi and Somalia.

“We will be partnering with our sister festival UDADA based in Nairobi for the second edition of the IIFF festival in Kenya .The Festival is going to be held at Power Pad Pawl in Nairobi. During this outreach, two Zimbabwean films will be screened in addition to the other content we have from the continent.

“We have picked two films, ‘Bouncing Car’ and ‘Nightingale’. We chose them because one of them was directed by a woman, Jessy Kuwana and the other one was produced by a woman as well.

“As this is part of our work to promote filmmakers, we would like to take their work to the continent and have them recognised across the world,” she said.

She said they are doing their best to use the IIFF platform to benefit Zimbabwean filmmakers and last year they premièred three local films, “Two Villages Apart”, “Dust and Fortunes” and “Makomborero” in Kenya, Uganda and Malawi.

“We are urging local film makers to submit their films because not only will they get an opportunity to have their films screened before an audience in Zimbabwe but also have a chance to have them shown across the region,” she said.

Mukwasi said this at a press conference held on Wednesday in the capital to unveil the theme for next year’s festival.

They also called for submissions for next year’s festival.

Speaking at the same event, the festival director, Yvonne Jila said the theme would be “Women Alive: Women of Heart”.

“It is a continuation of the theme from last year and we carried it to this year while 2016 will be the third consecutive year. We are celebrating resilient women, women who despite many obstacles they face still made it and are working hard towards the empowerment of women.

“With that in mind, the festival dates for next year are August 19-27 and we will have a closing award ceremony. In terms of the entries, we are looking for features, documentaries and shorts in all genres for the main competition as well as non-competition and special competitions categories,” she said.