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MBABANE – Comfort Ndzinisa’s ‘Unthinkable’ documentary has been nominated in the Melbourne Lift-off Film Festival, where it will compete in two selection stages this year.
The ‘Unthinkable’ documentary was released last year on October 3. It documents the events that took place during the eSwatini June/July 2021 unrest. The documentary grew popular with not only Emaswati but also neighboring countries such as South Africa (SA), it also debuted on South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC 1 cutting edge programme).
The Melbourne Lift-Off Global Network hosts film festivals across the globe in countries like Canada, United States of America (US), Netherlands, United Kingdom (UK), Germany, Australia, among others. Ndzinisa learnt about the nomination of his work through an email sent to him from the organisers of the film festival. In the email they stated that they wish to feature his documentary in their UK film festival this December, he agreed and took the opportunity with both hands. When reached for comment about the nomination, he expressed his excitement as his work continues to be recognised internationally.
“I’m very much excited about the nomination and it has motivated me to keep working hard and improve my work.
Huge
The nomination has a huge margin, it has surpassed even the highest of my expectations about the film. Looking back where we started with my Co-Executive Producer, Manqoba Nxumalo and the rest of the Mzomba Production team, this is surely a mind-blowing achievement for all of us, especially given that the film industry in Eswatini is quite small,” Ndzinisa said. He went on to relay some of the objectives he was trying to achieve during the production of the documentary; “The main goal was to tell the stories, giving a better perspective of the events, especially because a lot of information was contaminated on the social media about the unrest. The idea was to help everyone realise how much damage was done on the ground and for the violence to stop. We hoped to stitch back the element of humanity among everyone, despite our differences in political views,’’ said Ndzinisa . He went on to say that they hoped to be an instrument that would help document our history, even for generations to come, since not much history is documented in this country.
Ndzinisa further revealed how he went about with the production process of the documentary,which came at a price and had to be creative in compiling a solid footage to ensure quality viewing. “The documentary was never originally meant to be that huge. Initially it was meant to be about three minutes or so.
The whole production took place in a cellphone, from shooting to editing and subtitles. It became a serious challenge to have an elephant growing inside a small house. I did my best with the resources I had at the time. It eventually boiled down to whatever worked. Fortunately I had a very strong supportive team . The partnership made everything possible, I have made many upgrades for subsequent projects,” Ndzinisa said.