Call To Fund Independent Producers

"Most of the independent films that we have seen or heard about suffered from one problem: finance. Some have come and gone because the young independent producers have failed, and are still failing to source the big budget required for production."

Sound familiar to you? It certainly will if you are a filmmaker in Bulawayo. It looked strangely familiar when it caught my eye in Zimbabwe's Sunday News, so I had to read on for some further analysis of what is clearly as big a problem for filmmakers in Zimbabwe as it is anywhere - but this is Mugabe's country, not known to be a benign regime.

When the Broadcasting Services Act was amended, the idea was to increase participation by local film-makers in the broadcasting industry.  The idea was greeted with jubilation. Dreamers went to town. (All artistes are dreamers anyway). Projects started flying from one office to another, those with computers went to work, those without sat at home and tried to write their proposals.

The whole focus then was promoting local film-makers and their companies. It is not a mistake that within the Act there is a provision stipulating that about 40 percent of programmes aired on national television should be come from independent producers and film-makers. Loosely translated, this means that within a 24-hour schedule there should be about eight hours set aside for local and independent film-makers.

EDITOR:- The complete article asks searching questions critical of a what is known to be a despotic and corruopt regime. The rest of Raisedon Bava's article can be found here in the SUNDAY NEWS