The Sunday Mail
Takudzwa Chihambakwe – Leisure Correspondent
RENOWNED author and film producer Tsitsi Dangarembga has been blasted by her colleagues for ‘ranting’ about various issues that are affecting the growth and development of the local arts industry.
Tsitsi Dangarembga
While some of her opinions over the last few months have been spot on, in some instances she has just been making noise for the sake of it. Take for instance, Dangarembga got her facts messed up last week and ended up being heavily ridiculed by her colleagues in the film industry.
The showdown began when Elton Mjanana, an official from the Zimbabwe Film Festival Trust (ZIFFT) thanked hundreds of players in the local film industry for attending a session with DStv’s Zambezi Magic TV head of channel, Addiel Dzinoreva.
The meeting was meant to inform film makers that they now have a platform to showcase their work to the rest of Africa and the world at large, in the process getting paid.
Dzinoreva also highlighted various specifications that they were looking for as a channel.
He also revealed in the same meeting that Zambezi Magic TV will be screening Zimbabwe’s top 10 music videos from October 1 2015.
Following the meeting, Mjanana posted the following post on his Facebook timeline: “Thanks very much all you local producers for turning up in such large numbers. Let’s get this thing going!”
But surprisingly, Dangarembga who is known as Efie on Facebook had other ideas and posted the following response: “It wouldn’t be sexism, would it?”
With everyone still trying to guess what she was up to, she made a follow-up four minutes later.
“Also, why Zimbabweans rush to events driven by white South Africans who want to make money out of us when there are home grown events that are meant to develop us means that we have our priorities all wrong. We are still asleep. I hope we wake up soon. The sooner we wake up, the less rude that awakening will be.
“As to why ZIFFT has the event during the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) and does not attend any IIFF event, is something else again. When ZIFFT snubbed me in its formative years and I decided, all right, to do something else so that there is more rather than less, I never imagined that the animosity was so deeply ingrained. It truly defies sense and comprehension,” she wrote.
Added Dangarembga: “Or is it just total ignorance about how to develop our own sector? It boggles the mind and makes me feel very sad for those who are participating so willingly in strategies that do us down rather than make more to move us all forward. In my opinion, we really need to stop being used by white people for their benefit in this way. Is ZIFFT aware, or does it not care? Or is that the only way to keep getting funding? We have to be more strategic than that.”
Unbeknown to her, ZIFFT were playing hosts and the programme was a MultiChoice Zimbabwe initiative.
Accordingly, her post opened flood gates as fellow filmmakers began to fire at her.
“Oh my God Tsitsi . . . I actually was dressed up to come to the IIFF closing this evening and then you had to bar me with this childish post . . . in my mind I have grounded you to your room, that’s how I treat my kids when they behave the way you have done! And to think that I actually sportingly came to an IIFF screening with my two friends last Saturday and saw a very nice film ‘Mud Woman’ and enjoyed in spite of being one of only five people in the cinema (me, my two friends and Anthony Mutambira and Fungai Machirori, who are serving in your main competition jury).
“Zvinonyadzisa Efie kuti mukadzi mukuru sewe otukwa nevana vadiki . . . but again I have told you how I deal with my kids when they act exactly as you have done. PS the fact that filmmakers chose to be at Media Matrix workshop on Tuesday and at their meet and greet on Wednesday and then in their hundreds at ZIFFT yesterday should point you to who exactly is appealing,” responded Mjanana.
And the ZIFFT director, Nigel Munyati was not to be outdone.
“I have in the past chosen to ignore your silly rants Tsitsi, but I now feel compelled to stop this stupidity, and hereby set you and the record straight. By accusing Zimbabweans of ‘rushing to events driven by white South Africans’ you are implying that the filmmakers who attended this event should have been attending your ‘home grown event’ IIFF?” he queried.
“You must stop playing the condescending matriarch that assumes that all Zim filmmakers are kids who cannot decide what’s in their best interest. For your information, they are smart enough to make reasoned choices about what’s good for them, and they did just that. It would be incorrect to assume that had they not attended this event they would have gone to an IIFF screening. The question you should be asking yourself is have they been attending, and if not, then you need to take the necessary measures to attract them in future. Derisive outbursts such as this will not do it.”
Munyati added: “In case you hadn’t noticed Zim film practitioners have been marginalised for a very long time and the colour of solutions and opportunities out of this quagmire is irrelevant. A black-run government or film sector and black people like you have tried, but done little to help them out. So before you go preaching your racist nonsense, you must take a close look in the mirror. You may just realise that the sleeping one is you. The film sector has transformed considerably and is not the staid space people like you used to occupy. It’s now occupied by smart and dynamic young people who have a clear idea of where they need to go, at home and abroad, to pursue their craft profitably.”
Munyati charged further: “I know you have a psychosis with ZIFFT and blood rushes to your head whenever it does anything of note. Add to this your feeling that you must be part of everything film that happens in Zim; and if you are left out, you throw your toys out of your cot! You admit it yourself that part of your problem with ZIFFT is that ‘ZIFFT snubbed me’ and you have hated it ever since. You have even gone to the extent of telling the media that “ZIFFT is a ZANU PF plot to destroy IIFF.”
Other popular directors such as Joe Njagu were also equally shocked with Dangarembga’s remarks.
Njagu believes the post by the IIFF founder exposes her double standards.
“Efie Dangarembga, I think all this negative energy you are wasting can be put to better use if you had a positive suggestion or action to help better the industry or sector as you like to call it. This is the second time you have talked down on projects being done to at least get some traction on our dormant film sector. You speak of white people money. . . tell me there is no white man money in IIFF. You don’t have to force people to attend a festival,” he said.
With such battles taking place on the social media, it appears a truce between ZIFFT and IIFF will not be taking place anytime soon.
But Munyati says he has tried to break the impasse, all to no avail. During the ZIFF2013, he screened IIFF/WIFOZ films as a way to build bridges.
Efforts to get a comment from Dangarembga were fruitless.
The filmmakers however agree that there is a lot of potential in Zimbabwe, though opportunities are few.
