African Movies

The aim of the Participatory in Production project was to make the means of production accessible to the ordinary or poor communities particularly rural women hence counteract the gross inequalities inherent in centralised control of media production and dissemination. The participatory approach was adopted.

The benefits of adopting the participatory methodology were two fold. Through the process of production, women could be empowered. It was also an opportunity whereby women could be in a position to determine how they wanted to be portrayed and seen. Production was therefore seen as a process meant to give everyone a voice and create an environment whereby every individuals voice and perspective was valued and respected. The project believed that the integration of women grassroots as full partners in the socio-economic and political life of a nation and global economy was determined by their integration in today’s information society.

Through participatory video production the subordination of rural women could be tackled. The process embraced diversity.

Having realised the production of films using the participatory methodology, the project faced another problem. How could other rural people be able to benefit from these programmes? The project realised that there was no electricity in the rural areas, although the roads were bad, using a four-wheel drive vehicle they could be able to access most of the rural communities. What they needed was mobile vehicles, which would enable them to screen films in the rural communities. To complement the Participatory in Production Project, the Access to Media project was launched, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe.

The next challenge that faced the organisation was how to make the screening sessions have greater impact among the target groups. What lessons could be learnt from the Mobile screenings that was initiated by the Ministry of Information during the colonial era. The so called ‘Tiki’ films were screened on the walls of churches or schools. They were propaganda films which portrayed the white people as bosses and the black people as comfortable with their position in society. These propaganda films by the then government of the day, reinforced an oppressive status quo. AWFT wondered how one could use the same tool not for propaganda but for development and the empowerment of the grassroots women in particular.

The project realised the importance of initiating facilitated discussions after the screenings hence involving the communities in the process. The video’s became instruments that were being used as discussion starters, teaching communities other skills, and informing them. The Access to Media Project was enabling horizontal communication among communities which had no direct link or those separated by physical and other barriers. Chido Matewa recalls,

During one of our screenings in Chipinge District, one of the men who had come to join the group remarked ‘Maunza chiedza’ which literally means ‘You have brought light to our community’

Years latter, Chido Matewa still ponders about what this had meant to this community, most of whom had never watched a video in their lives. The prospect of Africa Women Filmmakers Trust doing a programme with them and seeing themselves excited the community. Among the communities that had participated in the production process, it had built confidence in them and when the same video film was shown to them, it enabled them to reflect, an activity we considered as important in the development process.

One of the other videos produced was entitled ‘Mufuku’ which means ‘waterhole’. This community had a problem of access to safe drinking water. By the time they had completed the video, the community had realised that collectively, they could harness their limited resources in an effort to solve their problem. In a way, the project was enabling communities to look within themselves at ways they could use to deal with development problems in their areas hence less dependent on donor funding which in some areas was stifling development.
Chido Matewa recalls, In 1999, after showing the film Survival, and an Entrepreneur community members in Zimunya near Mutare remarked

‘When we came we thought at the end we will be given some money to start a project or some blankets like other organisations are doing with orphaned children in this area, but no, you came to inform us, to empower us, to challenge us to stand up like those women in the film survival and be survivors like them. Here we have no gold, so we cannot do gold panning but we have plenty of trees. We should sit down and think what we can do with the resources which are locally available and in abundance here. But, as we have been shown in the film An Entrepreneur, we have to look at our skills and markets before we embark on anything otherwise we will fail as many have failed before us.’

In Marange most of the community members are of apostolic faith. Inspite of legislation, they still give away their girl children at a tender age some as young as seven years old in marriage to men old enough to be their grandfathers. The film Survival, and An Entrepreneur was screened after which a feature film Mwanasikana which was acquired from Media for Development Trust was also shown. The Ministry of National Affairs Officer who had helped in organising the screenings in this area Mr Chikwanda remarked,
‘In this area the problem of marrying away girl children is rampant and the girl children do not even finish primary school. So I think it is a good idea to combine developmental films and those which touch on social issues that affect development directly or indirectly’.
After the screenings there were some discussions after which the women expressed that it was not possible for them to tell their husbands what they had learnt so they had to be invited. One of the women remarked.

‘We need our man to help us change our societies especially attitudes towards the girl child’

In 2000, during one of the screening workshops whereby the film which deals with the issue of Aids, bought from Media for Development Trust, ‘Side by Side’, was shown, it enabled the community to discuss issues of Aids freely. One of them questioned how safe it was to use condoms. She said that rumours had spread that the substance inside the condoms was actually the one causing the spread of Aids. At this point, we realised that this process was of benefit as it enabled people to express themselves, start debate on topical issues, and also to understand the myths so that one could develop strategies to deal with them.

The Africa Women Filmmakers Trust opened a video library with financial assistance from Wilde Ganzen a Netherlands based organisation. This has enabled AWFT to source programmes from independent producers and other media houses, which communities would have expressed interest in, and Africa Women Filmmakers Trust not in a position to produce.

The project has plans to train village animators who would be responsible for facilitating discussion after the screenings hence giving communities a major role in the implementation of the project as well as production of supplementary print material to accompany the video films. The only drawback at the moment is the financial resources.

The Participatory in production has been funded in by the World Association for Christian Communication, who also helped in the acquiring of some of the equipment for the Access to Media Project as well as the Evangelical Missionwerk in Germany and the Communication Assistance Foundation in The Netherlands. The second mobile vehicle and equipment was funded by The Council for World Mission in 2000. A lot still needs to be done to make information more accessible to the rural and marginalized communities particularly those on farms and mining settlements.

More information:

Chido.E.Matewa-1@stud.man.ac.uk
awft@mweb.co.zw