BY SAM BANDA JNR:
Joyce Mhango Chavula’s latest film Nyasaland has showed its beauty and power again as it has been selected for the Silicon Valley African Film Festival in United States of America in a competition.
The 9th Silicon Valley African Film Festival will be held in California from October 4-7 2018.
The development comes barely a week after the film also got the nod to screen at the International Images Film Festival for Women in Zimbabwe next month.
“This is exciting for me and the team that worked on Nyasaland. We are making strides and we are still counting by faith that all goes well. We actually made a submission for them to accept the film,” Mhango Chavula said yesterday.
Nyasaland has also been nominated in the 2018 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCAs) in the category of Best Movie–Southern Africa alongside Shemu Joyah’s Road to Sunrise.
Voting for the AMVCAs opened on June 30 and closes on August 24 2018.
Premiered in March this year, it tells the story of a woman, who, upon her return to the village to see her sick father, is shocked to find him dead and buried.
What follows is her encounter with a hyena that is terrorising the village and it happens to be a human being.
With the help of a young man, the woman takes the hyena head on and saves her village.
Some of the actors starring in the film are Brenda Mselu, Kelvin Ngoma, Joyce Kathewera and Chifuniro Zacharia.
Mhango-Chavula made history for Malawi in 2016 when her second film Lilongwe triumphed in AMVCAs.
The actress and filmmaker was the first to win an award in the AMVCAs for Malawi and the first to notch the Best Movie–Southern Africa Award which was introduced in 2016.
Joyah’s film Road to Sunrise which has also been nominated in the Best Overall Movie in the 2018 AMVCAs, last year also screened at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival, where it won the Special Recognition Award for a Narrative Feature Film.
In 2016, Flora Suya also got an award at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival with My Mother’s Story.
In another development Peter Mazunda, who has been one of the leading cinematographers in the country, has been recognised for his efforts as MultiChoice Africa has appointed him in-country expert for the MultiChoice Talent Factory programme.
Mazunda Sunday said among others, he has been part of choosing nominees, who will take part in the programme.
“It means a lot to be part of this initiative which is aimed at growing the film industry. I have always had the passion of teaching people and I love imparting knowledge in those who are aspiring to be filmmakers,” Mazunda said.
He said the MultiChoice Talent Factory will help in the production of quality material since a lot of people will learn new skills through training.
“We will now have more people on the ground and, again, there will be more information to be shared and there will be sharing of expertise rather than working in isolation,” he said.
MultiChoice announced the Pan African Initiative for Film and Television industry in May this year.
The MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) initiative will deliver three touch points that launch throughout the year, the MTF academies, master classes and MTF Portal.
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