Gurira’s success should motivate arts investment

EDITOR — Danai Gurira recently landed a role in Marvel’s upcoming movie called The Black Panther. This is by no means a small feat for an actress who seems to be striking the right chords in Hollywood.

Danai’s exploits show that there is talent in Zimbabwe and if we invest in our film industry, we can be better than most of our African counterparts.

We have some of the best concept creators on the continent. A country which houses classic writers like Shimmer Chinodya, Charles Mungoshi, and Mbizvo Chirasha among others should be ashamed of its failure to turn the stories these and other writers have written into film adaptations.

Even on the digital space, Zimbabweans have been showing their propensity to entertain. Comedy startups like Bustop Tv, PO Box and Baba Tencen have been making efforts to reach the people through the new media. It is time for a clear arts policy to be put in place.

A provision for a specific budget should be awarded to our local broadcasters specifically for content creation and creative incentives. I was pained to learn that one of the head writers in popular South African TV show Isibaya, is a Zimbabwean. If all those people could come back home to rebuild our film industry, we would reap beautiful dividends.

But all of this is not possible if there are no protective policies on their intellectual property which shield them from piracy, competitive remuneration among other things.

The film industry which gave us classics like Yellow Card, Neria and More Time can still be revived if investment and favourable policies are channelled. Nathan Muzuva