ZIFF to honour 8 Zim directors

This event, to take place at the ZIFF Hub, will honour and celebrate eight young — and not so young — promising and exceptional directors from right here in Zimbabwe.
One of the aims of the ZIFF Trust is to promote the local film industry and the players in it. This will be an opportunity to meet some of the movers and shakers in the Zimbabwean film world, from different backgrounds, some being better known than others dealing in various different genres of film.
The directors to be honoured are Yeukai Ndarimani, Allan Muwani, Mary Ann Mandishona, Brighton Tazarurwa, Tafara Gondo, Rumbi Katedza, Nqobizitha Mlilo and Tawanda Gunda Mupengo.Tawanda Gunda Mupengo’s profile
The turban-clad Mupengo, is a quiet, self-effacing man whose love for writing and filmmaking saw him drop out of school early.
In 2000, Mupengo did a course at the now defunct UNESCO-Zimbabwe Film and Video Training School culminating in him writing and directing a 15-minute film, Painting a Scene. In 2001 he wrote and directed another 15-minute film, Vengeance is Mine, which won the Best Student Film award at the Southern African Film Festival (SAFF).
The same year, Mupengo took part in the very first Short Film Project of the ZIFF Trust that resulted in short film special delivery which received a special award from the Mbira Centre for the use the Shona language at ZIFF 2001.
Feeling he was now ready for the world having written, directed and produced several short films, he joined Studio 263 as a scriptwriter.
In 2005 he directed his first feature film, Tanyaradzwa, which went on to win several awards at the Africa Movie Awards (AMAA) in Nigeria. In 2007, Mupengo took home the first prize in the continent’s largest Pan African Film Festival devoted to gender-based violence for the film Peretera Maneta.
He feels filmmaking would develop faster on the continent if African countries went into co-production arrangements.