Zim Filmmaker Melgin Tafirenyika forges his own pa...

Zim Filmmaker Melgin Tafirenyika forges his own path

Audrey Galawu

Directing a film is demanding and even more so on a low budget, there is no money to throw at mistakes.

The Zimbabwean film industry is perceived to not exist due to lack of funding, but award-winning filmmaker Melgin Tafirenyika has carved his own way in making good films on low funding.

The award-winning filmmaker and actor, talks on his journey on his low-budget short film 5th Anniversary and Filmmaking in Zimbabwe.

His film, 5th Anniversary was selected for screening at the fifth edition of the “We Are Africa Film Festival” in Mpumalanga, South Africa in 2019.

Speaking to Zim Now, Tafirenyika said it is different to shoot movies in Zimbabwe because filmmakers shoot on shoestring budgets while competing with fully-funded films from outside.

Despite having a low budget for his film, Tafirenyika said he would continue to do so until the industry becomes a successful one.

“I just wanted to play with creativity by writing an edu-tainment film. At the same time I wanted to challenge my writing skills by writing a film with fewer people to show the hidden talent of execution.

“We won’t stop making films until we see our films being nominated outside the boundaries of Africa and the world at large. We trust the process and we don’t despise our humble beginnings.

“The audiences cry for more films and it is in our best interest not to give the audience half-baked films and we love telling our home ground stories.

“We did it with other films such as Chihombiro, 206 Bones, Shortlist, 30 February, but not with 5th Anniversary since we’re still recovering production costs and it is a recent film,” he says.

Tafirenyika said most film makers in the country do not want to put in the hard work to achieve what they want.

“Well, l can say what makes a soldier a soldier is not wearing the uniform, but it is the process they go through! I see a lot of Zimbabwean filmmakers who don’t want to go through the process. Everyone is crying for money but only few people want to work for that money.

“We cry that the industry is like this and that but no-one is willing to fight and create what we want to see,” he added.

Tafirenyika is an award-winning Zimbabwean filmmaker, actor, model, director and producer. He is the director and founder of Light Image Productions.

He featured in local, regional and international films that include The Widow, Generations, Easy Money and Fong Kong Pastor.

Tafirenyika’s short-film titled A New World, was selected among more than 800 submissions from across the world for the Texas Musicbed Reopen Challenge.

In May 2018, he won the Best Entertainer Award at the Zim Excellence Awards in Cape Town, South Africa.