The Sunday News
I HAVE had the privilege of watching most of the so-called locally made feature films and I must confess that I have come out of each movie with mixed feelings. On one hand I have come out feeling excited about the potential exhibited in the projects, and always there are small bright sparks that jump out of the screen promising a much brighter future. On the other hand I come out disheartened, my heart heavy at the realisation that the film sector continues to walk on the same ground — like someone walking on a treadmill; walking but not going anywhere.
I had the same feeling after watching the Fortune Tazvivinga directed Inhlanhla. It was the same feeling with Moonlight Crossing and Zola — The Bicycle Thief. The same feeling enveloped me last week after watching Qiniso. There is a common thread among these local film projects. They all promise a mountain of excitement and then give you an anthill. However, one art form our young filmmakers have mastered is how to hype their projects. They truly deserve distinctions in this field, especially for managing to get people all excited about the first public showing of their projects. It is only after the first public viewing that most, if not all, crumble and die naturally.
Having had the privilege of watching most, if not all, locally produced films my biggest disappointment is that each project brings with it new people to the sector — a new crew and cast and this means starting from scratch and as a result every movie produced locally is automatically a learning experience.
It is my sincere hope that next time I see a locally produced movie it will be a collaboration by people that worked in all the above movies Inhlahla, The Bicycle Thief, Moonlight Crossing and Qiniso — these young filmmakers must learn to share their experiences and avoid making the same basic mistakes we keep seeing in every project they embark on. Audiences cannot be going to watch local movies and coming out saying the same things — there is potential. For how long are we going to sustain the audiences’ appetite for things local with potential? Audiences are now demanding more than just potential. They want the real deal.
The movie Qiniso had a lot of lessons for me. I will not dwell on the poor planning of the premiere. That is for audiences and invited guests to complain about. As a critic and an active artiste here are some lessons that I think are critical for those who intend to go the same route.
Collaborations are the future of the arts. Qiniso is a collaborative effort between young minds. It is about young people with ideas and dreams coming together to make things happen for themselves. Whether the film is a success or not one thing for sure is that the project was able to create critical debate on local filmmaking before and after the premiere. And that alone should be applauded.
From the bumper crowd that attended the premiere there is no doubt now that local people want to support local arts — they are craving for products they can relate to. All what is now needed is to provide that kind of content.
From what I saw in the movie in terms of talent I believe natural talent alone is not enough. My advice to young movie directors is not to just pick anyone from the street and give them critical roles in films. Actors need to be trained. Remember acting is a craft and not just about regurgitating lines in front of a camera. It is the duty of actors to learn the craft and the duty of the director to find actors good enough to breathe life into his/her character.
Most local films are dying on the technical side. Poor picture quality. Poor variation of shots. Poor sound. Lighting challenges. Poor set designs and all. The technical side is one area where as a growing sector we need to raise our game.
Aspiring filmmakers need to make a lot of short films first. They can make as many mistakes as they want with short films. They can also experiment as much as they want. Feature films are not for experiments. They become very expensive experiments.
There is serious need for future collaborations to cut across gender, generations, genres and experience. Let the collaborators bring something different to the project.
Like in all films there are things that worked for Qiniso. And things that did not work. One of the things that worked is the chosen genre of the film. The who-done-it mystery genre worked well as it kept the audience suspended on their seats wondering who killed Nkosana. The script need cleaning though as some scenes could have looked better had they been further developed.
The setting let the film down. Whoever did the production design forgot that setting is always a narrative element. The setting in Qiniso, particularly Nkosana’s house was not developed well. It was too bare and monotonous and ended up adding to the drudgery of the film. A prominent lawyer’s house should have looked better than the one we saw in the movie. Remember storytelling is make belief. Most of the audience was not convinced the house belonged to a prominent lawyer.
All in all, it was an inspiring attempt. I must say thumbs up to the young crew and cast for standing up and doing something positive. Whatever the reviews, Bulawayo noticed your efforts and now awaits your next project.
