I GREW UP WITHOUT A TV AND NOW I MAKE CONTENT FOR TV - RACHAEL MBEWE’S STORY
MARCH is the month in which Zambia joins the rest of the world in celebrating International Women’s Day. It is also the month in which the country celebrates the youth, on March 12. To be a female youth, thriving in the film industry in Zambia is such an amazing experience because the creative gets to tell and share the Zambian story.
Being a creative female youth is a narrative that Racheal Mbewe relates to very well. Racheal is a filmmaker, a creative entrepreneur, a citizen journalist, and a graduate of the MultiChoice Talent Factory Academy, and she is currently running a media organisation called Tipange Media Group.
Racheal, whose love for film began many years ago, was born and bred in Kanyama, one of the biggest townships in Lusaka. While she was growing up, her family never owned a TV set, but her neighbour was always kind enough to allow her to watch tv from their home.
“I often thought that people who owned TV sets were the coolest people in the world,” says Racheal.
When she was not watching tv with her cool neighbour, Racheal, and her siblings would sometimes go to watch public screenings of films at the community centre or at church during various public holidays such as Easter Holiday and they would watch movies such as The Passion of the Christ or Jesus of Nazareth.
However, the free public screening came with challenges, Racheal recall, because the screening only took place at night for proper projection and her parents were always against her going for the nighttime public screenings.
“One day my niece and I, with our friends and some women from the community went to watch the public screening of Jesus of Nazareth. We managed to watch the movie until the end. However, when my niece and I got home, yoh, my dad whipped us for going out at night without his knowledge. Fortunately, after that ordeal, my father bought us a small TV set a few days later and that was the beginning of my biggest adventure,” says Racheal.
“I started wondering about how the films on TV were made and how people managed to get films and shows, including the News on TV. Fortunately for me, I always wanted to be a journalist, and I got lucky enough to get trained as a citizen journalist under a project called Mama Sosa.
The training in the Mama Sosa project opened my eyes and exposed me to some sad stories in my community such as early marriages, teenage pregnancies, drug and alcohol abuse, and high crime rates.
I knew then that I needed to share these stories with the rest of the country and the world at large so that I can educate my fellow youths on these vices,” says Racheal.
Racheal states that documenting these stories that were affecting her community was not easy, because she did not have the right equipment and skills to record the stories secondly, she would use a phone to record and document the work and most media houses would not accept it because the quality was not good enough.
“One, day, I got the opportunity of a lifetime, and it was the call to entry for the MultiChoice Talent Factory Academy (MTF)!
I immediately applied because I knew that this would help me to learn how to handle filming equipment and write better scripts for my stories to be documented and for them to air on TV,’ says Racheal.
She also recalls that when was accepted to the MTF Academy, she was really excited and happy. “A lot of doors have been opened for me; a young female creative from Kanyama Compound. I have directed two short films one is called Mphaso and the other one is called On Air - A Time to Heal. I have also written a full-length feature film that is scheduled for production later this year. I am excited to share as well that I have also written a Court Drama series called Mu Court which is being produced by Chibolya Media Farm in conjunction with Tipange Media Group,” says Racheal.
Rachel says, “I am truly honoured and blessed to be a female filmmaker in Zambia. Through MTF, my career has grown to heights I never thought would be possible. Besides the projects I have mentioned, I am happy to share that In 2021 I was privileged to be part of Chibolya Media Farm, where I graduated as one of the best students and was awarded a media tour in South Africa.
In 2022, I had the privilege of meeting amazing and bold filmmakers in South Africa, while visiting film sets, such as the set of Gomorrah and IsthembiSo, etc which you can watch on DStv’s Mzansi Magic channel.
In the same year, a courtroom drama show that I have been developing since 2019 won the Best Concept script under the PACRA’s IP Innovation Competition under the category of Arts and Culture and I was awarded a cash prize which helped me with the research and development of the show further.
Lastly, I recently worked as the first Assistant Director on Service To Heart, an independent feature film by Paul S. Wilo.
The film will be out in cinemas soon so please be on the lookout for it.”
“The list of my achievements and the projects that I have worked on since graduating from MTF in 2018 is endless and I am so privileged to share my journey thus far with you all reading this.
As we celebrate Women’s Month and Youth Month, I want to encourage all young creatives to believe in themselves and continue to push to have their work out there. My love for film was a dream that has now turned into reality through MTF, and I want to take this opportunity to encourage young creatives and filmmakers to apply to join MTF because there is a whole world of film that is waiting for you to unlock,” says Racheal.
“I want to also take this opportunity to encourage women to take advantage of the abundant technology that we have in the country to better our lives.
This year’s International Women’s Day was held under the theme DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality, as woman working with technology, this theme is important to help us women to fight the digital gender gap as well as to fight the economic and social inequality. So I urge women to take up the mantle and advocate for digital inclusion,” says Racheal.