Underrepresented in the director’s chair

It was one of those nights where everyone was in a jolly mood. The historical Old Fort ground in Zanzibar was luminous as revellers and film lovers enjoyed the award ceremony which marked the closing night of the 18th edition of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) 2015.

The nine-day festival, which was a success on many levels ended just last month with the theme ‘Waves and visions of hope.’ This annual event painted a brighter future on Tanzania’s film industry as local movie actors and directors scooped more than 8 awards, accolades which were awarded from movies and documentaries. It showed the potential of our movie industry. Overall, over 90 movies and documentaries were screened over the entire duration of the festival which lasted for 9 days.

On that night, majority of the award winners were male. Two female directors from Tanzania scooped three awards from 38 films collected from Tanzania. Majority of the women in the film industry in Tanzania are actresses. This begs the question; where are the female film directors in Tanzania?

As the highlight of the festival was centred on victories of the female film directors, it brought to shore the vivid reality of shortage of female directors in our movie industry.

Woman brings you experiences of the two female film directors who won the awards as well as different voices from different stakeholders in the film industry in the country.

Tulanana Bohela got a ‘special mention by Ousmane Sembene’ Award which she won for her film ‘Uthando.’ She describes herself as an African story teller and a committed broadcast journalist. “The special mention was quite humbling; the fact that the film was nominated under such a prestigious category is immensely humbling. I came to the festival with an open mind with the hope of interacting with fellow filmmakers,” says Bohela.

Explaining about her ‘Uthando’ film she says that, ‘Uthando’ is the Isixhosa word for ‘love’. The project was part of her postgraduate degree that she self-sponsored and pursued last year at South Africa’s school of Motion Picture and Live Performance, AFDA Johannesburg.

Women need to stand out

Commenting on the lack of female film directors in Tanzania she says; “women need to own their space in the film industry.” By this she means that women are not trying to be like men or be like what people try to label female directors – ‘leaders’, they should just be directors.

She further says that directing is about having a vision and the vision has no gender. It is art; it stands alone and should be critiqued as such.

“To improve the situation, I think generally (not only in film) young women need to learn to own their space, be confident and go for what they want unapologetically. Not being afraid, is scary, it means that you have to listen to your voice/spirit/God and shut out all the voices that tell you otherwise.

Commenting on the challenges of directing a film, she says that one needs to get the right people who will understand and be passionate about your vision as much as you are, as well as finances to be able to motivate that team.

Bohela who has directed two other short films and one 26 episode television show says that, directing ‘Uthando’ on the other hand, made her overcome personal challenges. She had to lead a team of 30 people who looked to her for answers.

Honeymoon Aljabri, in her late 30s won two awards for her film ‘Daddy’s wedding’. The awards were for best cinematography and best director categories. She says that her winning came as a surprise.

“I have spent more than Sh50 million in production expenses for ‘Daddy’s Wedding’. It is not an easy thing to do but I always believe in risk taking. And until now I haven’t received a single penny from the film,” says Aljabri.

Adding to that she says, “Film directing is something I had always wanted to do. So I had to sell my beauty shop in Texas to get the money to do the film.” Since film directing is just like any other job, one has to educate themselves enough if he/she really wants to be a film director.

“Film directing is a very expensive career for majority of people to afford. However, if one has a talent on film he or she can simply educate themselves at their own pace by reading different books and through normal workshops,” says Aljabri.

It is apparent that majority of film directors in the world are male. Aljabri attributes this to the lack of persistence by women to stick to what they really want to do.

William Mtitu, is one of the biggest film distributors in the country, he is also a film maker. He says that most women working in the Tanzanian movie industry lack an unperturbed level of seriousness.

Hard terrain

He says that if majority of actresses can simply postpone filming just because their partners have called them back home, then none of these people will ever grow to think about being film directors.

“All I can say is that none of the film distributors or film makers can choose to just give funds to someone who is not serious with their work in the first place. This is partly the reason as to why most film directors are male,” says Mtitu.

It is the right time for women who are in the film industry to rethink their priorities and how they are going to nurture their careers. They can start off by doing something new that in one way or another will help them grow in the industry.

They should learn to value their work. Family is important but there reaches a point where one needs to separate home life from work life.

If it is time for work let it be work and all relationship matters should be handled after work. Failure to do that will prolong the day female film directors will ascend to the top of the trade in the country and globally.

Susan Lewis, a long time actress in Tanzania’s film industry famously known as Natasha says that, most of the film distributors in the country are male. As a result this breeds male domination in one way or another.

She furthers states that, most film distributors have no trust in women so this creates a hard terrain for female movie directors to flourish on.

Equal capability

Female directors have just as much capability of directing good movies as their male counterparts. “I have directed two films namely; Chanzo Mama and Binti Musa. Chanzo mama did very well on the market.

Binti Musa is still in progress but will also do very well. Those are just examples that a female director can also do a great work like male directors,” says Natasha.

Adding to that she says, “Being a film director is something that any committed person can do. However, lack of female directors in the country in my opinion is due to male domination in the film industry.”

Leah Mwendapole is among female film makers in Tanzania. She says that, there is very limited education as far as film making is concerned. And since the film industry provides employment to people just like any other sector, people need to educate themselves on how to go about making films and acting.

Mwendapole reverts to the state of female film directors emanating from brief stints of acting and thus having no commitment to the role of being directors. Apart from lacking requisite knowledge on directing, they portray limited devotion which in turn affects their role in the industry.

“Since they get paid for their work, they don’t go an extra mile to learn new things about film making. And bad enough, majority of actresses don’t even care about their jobs – all they care about is getting paid at the end of the day,” says Mwendapole.

She concludes by stating that Tanzania has a lotof female talents in the film industry but they don’t stretch their ability which at the end of the day affects their status in the film industry.

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