American film back on Zim screens

AMERICAN film, Gather, opened at the Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF) on Wednesday, as it made a return to the showbiz after a twoyear hiatus due to funding constraints and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gather follows stories of natives amid a growing movement to reconnect with spiritual and cultural identities that were disrupted by genocide.

The opening ceremony was held at Theatre in the Park in Harare.

This year’s festival, which is the 21st edition, will be held under the theme Owning Our Story and will have both virtual and physical screenings under strict COVID-19 compliance.

Zimbabwe International Film and Festival Trust (ZIFFT) board member Solomon Maramba said the festival theme was a call to action borne out of the narratives from the Zimbabwe project which the trust embarked on in 2019.

“The goal of narratives from Zimbabwe project is to document our rich tradition and heritage and produce a multimedia database that can be used by creatives and academics as a starting point for deeper research, a basis for educational material, a reservoir for those interested in understanding that heritage and, indeed, a legacy for future generations,” he said.

“A call for us as a people to acknowledge who we are and recognise ourselves, and without apology own it.

“This is who we are.”

He said when developing the narratives from the Zimbabwe project they discovered that there were many aspects to the heritage of a people such as architecture, music, dance, religion, system of governance, child rearing, lovemaking, food and the culture around it.

“Taking ownership could mean coming on board to finance, documenting something and submitting the project.

“It could be producing your own archive that documents the growth of your company, doing your family tree, it is up to us as a people to own our story,” he said.

Viewers can watch all the festival activities and films from the ZIFF Facebook page and website.

Curtains will come down tomorrow at the four-day festival that also featured children partaking in a children’s fiesta which was meant to teach them how to tell their own stories through animation and drawing.