The Sunday Mail
Andrew Moyo —
Zimbabweans who watch ZBC-TV have fallen in love with the sitcom “Muchaneta”, making it one of the most popular programmes on the station.
With a rich cast — which includes Kessia Magosha, Admire “Bhutisi” Kuzhangaira, Tendai “Sokostina” Garwe, Eddington Hatitongwe and Rumbidzai Mapfumo among others — the sitcom has been a welcome addition to ZBC’s programming.
Another production which has been getting attention is “Muzita Rababa”, launched late last year. It stars the likes of Ammara Brown, Mudiwa Hood and Kudzai Musungo to name just a few.
With these two shows, its creators — Mirazvo Productions — have made a bold statement. In just a few months, their relationship with ZBC has yielded successful projects and they are showing no signs of slowing down.
Mirazvo is now working on another production, “The Brook Triad”, a soapie that will hit the small screen in April. Considering the versatility they have already shown in terms of coming up with unique storylines, this is something to look forward to.
The Sunday Mail Leisure interviewed Mirazvo Productions’ co-founder Nick Zemura who shed more light on their company’s vision.
Founded by brothers Nick and Mike Zemura in 2010, Mirazvo is a multimedia company focusing on high definition film and television production.
Film making runs in the family’s blood as their older brother, Harrison, worked for ZBC in the ’90s and was part of the production crew on popular drama series “Mukadota”.
“My young brother Nick and I have always wanted to venture into film making since we were little kids and I guess this was because we had a brother who was working for ZBC when we were growing up. It was so cool watching ‘Mukadota’ and having to wait for the credits so that we see our brother’s name,” said Zemura.
While Nick is more interested in writing and directing, his brother is engrossed with the technical aspects.
“I started writing scripts on a serious tip when I was still in high school but Mike sort of developed an interest for the technical stuff. If you look at the way we work you will notice that my brother is the one who is in charge of the camera works, sound, editing and all the other technical things and I deal with the talent aspect and scripts.”
After graduating from Seke Teachers College, Nick taught for less than three weeks before concluding that he was in the wrong place.
He went to the United States in 2000 and studied film making at various institutions, while his soon-to-be partner was working in Canada.
“When I was in the US I got to learn all aspects of film making, so I am basically well-equipped with all the necessary skills required in the industry, from directing to writing. After finishing my studies, I teamed up with Mike and we formed Mirazvo but we did not come back home right away because we needed to mobilise resources.”
The first film they made on returning to Zimbabwe in 2014 was “My Lady”, which was nominated for the 2015 Nama Awards for Best Actor, Best Actress and Outstanding Screen Production.
Other films they worked on were “Makunun’unu Mawodza Mwoyo” and “Mwana waMwari”, before they ventured into TV.
“We then decided to go into television because we noticed that in Zimbabwe we do not have a vibrant cinema culture, especially for local films, but people watch TV. Our idea was to come up with a drama that would be widely watched and that is how ‘Muchaneta’ came about.”
He said they came up with the idea for “Muzita Rababa” two years ago but the project failed because they did not have enough resources.
“After the success of our first show, we went to ZBC and told them we had another idea for a drama, they liked it and so they commissioned us to start working on it. We did 13 episodes for ‘Muzita Rababa’, which were decent and as soon as Afcon finishes we will give them another 26 episodes so the drama will be screening twice a week.”
In April, the sopie “The Brooke Triad” will start airing three times a week.
“We are working on a family saga with a storyline that will be revolving around three powerful families who will be dealing with various societal issues.
“Two of our shows that are on TV at the moment are shot using Black Magic HD cameras but for ‘The Brook Triad’ we will step it up a bit and use 4K cameras since ZBC will be digitising soon and we also want our programme to have the highest quality possible when that happens.
“More projects are in the pipeline because at the moment we are working with ZBC and they have been very supportive in all the projects we have come up with.”
