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Kundai Marunya
Arts Correspondent
A new film school, Gramophix Academy, launched a critique session for local television productions at a fully subscribed event at their Construction House premises in Harare recently.
The debut film critic session drew a large number of emerging and seasoned film-makers who took their time to review, “Melissa”, a short-film by budding writer, director and producer Welensky Kaseke.
The film, a tale of the discovery of a flower that has scientific powers to multiply living organisms, created a vibrant discussion over the genius of its making, the flaws, what could have worked better and how to improve it.
What stood out most from the film was a refreshingly new storyline that marries traditional herbs with science fiction, a first in the country.
The way the story was told mostly through action with limited dialogue also had the audience captivated.
The story line and suspense driven delivery had members of the audience challenging Kaseke and his team to develop the short film into a bigger production.
Kaseke said “Melissa” was inspired by a drive to merge science fiction (sci-fi) and African elements.
“The film was inspired by the idea of how best we can merge sci-fi, which is what people like and African elements so we just found herbs and sci-fi as a good experiment to play around with and see how best we could come up with a good story,” he said.
Kaseke started working on the short-film in 2020.
“We were on a production set for this television series and just thought we could also make our own productions, so ‘Melissa’ was one of the first productions we worked on,” he said.
“From then we have worked on several productions but always wondered if the film was good enough.
“We made the film for the audience so we just finally decided to release, hence this critic session on it is giving us insight on how we could have made it better.”
Kaseke said the film critique session helped them realise the potential in the story.
“The session was very helpful as we got to learn of some of the mistakes we might not have seen in a constructive way,” he said.
Brian Kaseke, Welensky’s father who is one of the four actors in “Melissa”, said the film critique session had the potential to further develop local film sector.
“If film makers continue coming for the sessions, submitting their projects and discussing with fellow practitioners in the sector, this could grow us as a sector,” he said.
“It needs the support of both the young and the seasoned film makers, all coming together with the common goal of developing the sector, that way even the government and the corporates can support further development”.
Gramophix has opened its doors to film makers for the weekly review sessions.
Gramophix administrator, film-maker Donald Mabido, said the platform was meant to improve the local film industry.
“We will be meeting for these sessions every Friday evening, inviting stakeholders in the film sector be they members of the media, broadcasters and content creators,” he said.
“We plan to have those in-charge with receiving content at broadcasters to be part of the discussion so that budding film makers will know what sells, and how to go about delivering their content.
“Veterans in the industry will give guidance to the young while the platform will also act as a bridge to connect different stakeholders in hope to develop a viable industry going forward.”
Mabido challenged film-makers to be at the for front of growing and sustaining the discussion forum. Gramophix is a new film school offering both short courses, certificates and diplomas in various facets of film-making.
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