Rumbidzai Mbewe

Leisure Correspondent

THE International Images Film Festival will this year present the eleventh edition of the women’s festival in Zimbabwe.

It is the inaugural professional women’s festival in sub Saharan Africa. The festival will run under the theme, “Women Alive” which portrays among other things the importance of women in society and the ways in which women survive.

It recognises the positive, peace building change that individual women can bring to their homes, communities and nations. This year, the festival will take place on 23 November  to 7 December  in Gwanda and 13-14 December  in Binga.

Yvonne Jila, the festival director, said every year they come up with a different theme and this year the theme is in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goal number 3. “The theme seeks to show how women keep alive despite any given situation be it at home and outside the home,” she said.

She said such festivals are of benefit to women as women get the chance to tell their stories and give solutions to problems that women face in their day to day lives. “The festival will be of great benefit to women in the industry as well as the ordinary women when it comes to dealing with certain situations. It will help change their mindsets in overcoming challenges,” said Jila.

The festival will also include a workshop where women film makers will be taught how to write scripts .

“We are going to be holding workshops during the festival. The workshops will help them improve their skills as far as script writing is concerned,” she said.

Yvonne urged women film makers to take part in this festival as it will give them a lot of exposure locally and internationally.

“Taking part in this festival will be good for exposure to a lot of female film makers. During this festival they will get the chance to meet with a lot of film makers from different countries who will be exhibiting some of their works too. It will also make them keep up with trends of other countries as far as film production is concerned,” she said. Each year, a selection of films is featured to interrogate debate and celebrate the resilience of women against many odds.