The Sunday News
THE movie, Zola: “The Bicycle Thief” has bagged its first accolade after landing an award at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival in California, United States last Sunday.
The film, which was shot in various locations in Zimbabwe, was awarded for an achievement in narrative feature films, after being screened at SVAFF on 18 October this year.
Sanelle Sibanda, the producer, director and writer of the movie, said they would be riding on the award to sell the movie rights.
The movie has also been shown at several other festivals that include the Oakland International Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival and the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France.
United States-based Sibanda, however, said his expectations of finding a buyer were dampened, stating that most big distributors prefer movies that feature famous actors, as they make it easy to market the movie.
“We are hoping that winning will help with finding buyers but I am also realistic in my expectations. Big studios have certain expectations; they want famous actors to be involved for marketing purposes. Movies with black people have a specific niche and we are still hoping to find that niche,” he said.
Sibanda also said while he is willing to engage agents to sell the movie on their behalf, most were dishonest and interested in being paid without doing much work.
“Most of these agents are only interested in your money; they make you pay them up front but are not willing to put in the effort in finding buyers. I had an agent when I went to Cannes but he did not even have our movie displayed on his booth when I got there. For me I think the greatest challenge is finding an honest agent,” he said.
Selling the movie to a big studio would enable Sibanda to make a return on his work while spelling a windfall for the actors depending on their contracts.
SVAFF showcases of feature films, shorts and animations from “Africa’s seasoned and emerging first-voice filmmakers”.
Zola premiered locally in August last year with hope that it would be able to secure international distributors to enable them to make a return from the movie.
Sibanda said being a “lone ranger” was negatively affecting him, as he had to do a lot of things by himself. He also said his attention was now divided between securing distributors and writing a new movie title “Zenzo”.
Zola is about a poor boy Zola who lives in a remote village in Africa whose life takes a drastic change when his father leaves to work in South Africa and his mother dies of Aids.
He is forced to live with his poor uncle, a subsistence farmer, who drinks too much.
Zola gets his big break when he auditions for a dance competition. It depicts how possible it is to overcome obstacles even in the direst of situations.
Despite the setbacks, Zola and his team manage to take the crown and win the ticket to represent the country in an international dance show in America.
The cast includes Ronald Sigeca, Prince Zulu, Patrick Mabhena, the late Simon Banda, Nomvelo Khoza and Josphat Ndlovu.
Sibanda is an independent filmmaker, who has written, produced and directed several feature films and short films, has also had the opportunity to film America’s First Lady Michelle Obama.
