New movie from Go-Chanaiwa
But very few would know that Von Tavaziva (pictured above), well-known as Detective Sergeant Chanaiwa, of the popular TV series, Go-Chanaiwa-Go, is actually a film actor, writer, producer and director of his own movies.
The UK trained Microsoft certified systems engineer’s passion for action movies has promulgated into 13 episodes of Season 1 and 2 of the popular anti-crime series on our local television screens over the past few years.
After the successful launch and marketing of the episodes, a new locally produced full length movie, Simbimbino, is about to hit the screens. The movie is set to make its debut on the big screen at the end of July and would soon be available in DVD format soon afterwards.
Tavaziva said Simbimbino is the story of a young girl who has hit the hard times and finds the going getting tougher in a big city such as Harare, where there are daily challenges about making, economic hardships, crime, corruption and stressful family life.
The movie, although low in budget, was shot and produced locally using the barest resources such as HDV cameras and edited at Tavaziva’s own company, VT Studios.
The producer says the main actress, whose name would be revealed once the movie is launched, was picked from an ordinary street in the neighbourhood of Mbare and was coached by the company to become a movies star.
Tavaziva said this is a very important and unique aspect of VT Studios’ movie making business that picks ideas from ordinary people and distributes them back to ordinary Zimbabweans in the form of DVDs. The new film typifies urban life in Zimbabwe and the script is entirely in Shona – quite a departure from the action movies that the producer is known for.
“With Simbimbino, we’re trying to show the world that we can produce other feature movies besides the action films and above all, we are using 99 percent of the Shona dialect and that makes it accessible to several parts of the country, even those within the furthest reach.”
Those who have seen Tavaziva and company selling DVDs in the streets of Harare would probably wonder at the marketing concept behind the whole project.
Tavaziva says does his own marketing of the DVDs in the streets of Harare and employs other people who help him to distribute the product as one way of fighting piracy.