International Images Film Festival for Women breaking new ground
The festival will be running for 9 days in Harare and will proceed to Bulawayo, Binga and Gwanda for the months of November and December. The opening ceremony which will be held on the 15th of August at Ster Kinekor, Eastgate with the film directed by Biyi Bandele "Half Of A Yellow Sun" (which still hasn't premiered in Nigeria) we are pleased to announce that the director will be present and will shed some light as to the challenges he faced during the production of the us$10 million dollar film.
We have a strong local influence this year with over 20 films set to be screened at the festival this is in the midst of media reports that Zimfilms are extinct! In respect to cinematography, the films are visually appealing with Dust and Fortunes doing exceptionally well in other African festivals.
Though with some films more can certainly be done in terms of content, IIFF has taken it upon themselves to therefore host it's first ever adaptation workshop with Zimbabwean playwrights and story tellers to develop their adaptations intensively under the guidance of Nigerian world-class screenwriter and story analyst Adeola Solanke.
It surely seems like a Nigerian Affair as most of the festival guest are of Nigerian descent and there certainly is a lot we can learn from them in terms of film distribution! Andrew Dosunmu will also be coming in with his film “Mother of George” which stars American based Danai Gurira one of Zimbabwe's high profile actresses. The festival will play host to 7 international film directors and we hope that local filmmakers take full advantage of this opportunity to network and find new ways to improve their skills.
We are breaking new ground as we expand our horizons and take the festival to Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Somalia. This move is not only to give our local films a wider audience and market but also to facilitate dialogue between women of different origins and cultures so that we may find universal solutions to the day to day challenges we all face. We hope to nurture some of the young women's film festivals in the region as so far we have been the only Womens Film Festival of this nature South of the Sahara.
As our festival continues to grow we are constantly looking for new ways to make it exciting and appealing to women from all walks of life So here is the latest in why we are still hot. Renowned German based fashion designer Arrey Enou will be coming for IIFF 2014.
Her brand Arrey Kono rocked the Africa Fashion Day Berlin Spring/Summer 2014 collection. We are positively thrilled to announce that she will be showing her collection at a closed event during IIFF 2014 along with a select number of Zimbabwean designers, this is part of our Dress your Diva as a means of retaining creative talent in the country and as a means of encouraging influential Zimbabweans to invest in local creative industries and talent. Designers are to be teamed with women from the corporate world and government as we believe that real divas are the women who have worked hard to get to where they are and they should be the role models for our young women.
The empowering generosity that we have received from our sponsors has enabled us to be the most successful film festival in Zimbabwe to date. The EU -ACP Cultures+, Culture Fund and CAFOD are our main sponsors whose assistance has allowed us to grow in terms of content, audience, program, venues and impact. A special thank you goes out to the participating embassies namely France, Japan, Sweden Iran and the United States of America –Public Affairs Section and to our audiences who have made us strive for perfection in our programming.
