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Raisedon Baya
THE movie house at Bulawayo Centre has been a beehive for weeks now. Black Panther has been filling the theatres both in the afternoon and evening.
The Hollywood film about a super hero in Africa has been phenomenal to say the least. It has been breaking box office records almost every week.
As we write the film is heading towards the $1 billion mark worldwide. For a film that was made for over $200 million, and breaking records every week, reaching the 1 billion dollars mark will just be an added bonus. The world now knows the film has performed way beyond expectation.
We have been to the movie house to watch Black Panther a couple of times now and on all occasions we witnessed full houses, with some people being sent home.
To be honest we haven’t seen such excitement about a movie since the days of Jean Claude Van Damme’s hit action hero movies Kickboxer and AWOL.
We remember failing to access the movie house for days to see the two movies at the then Kine 600 along Robert Mugabe Way.
Anyway this time around we observed three kinds of people that came for Black Panther. Group number one came solely for the movie.
This group came to enjoy the story and visuals and as soon as the movie started they all went silent, eyes glued to the big screen. Nothing mattered except what was on the screen.
The second group was there more for themselves and their friends. This group came to the movie to make a statement or rather statements about their dress sense or just to be seen at the movies looking fashionable and being loud.
The group was easily identifiable by the way they dressed. They were difficult to miss. They were noisy and attention seeking. Even inside the movie house — one or two couldn’t sit still and kept moving about, changing places and making noise.
The third and last group was there just tagging along, they were there because everyone out there was talking about Black Panther and they didn’t want to be left out.
One or two from this group got lost on their way to the toilets. One or two had no idea where to buy tickets. One or two had no idea of the difference between 3D and 2D. They were there because suddenly going to the movie had become fashionable.
Every movie session we went, we saw these groups. Next time you go to the movie house — especially if Black Panther is still showing, look for these groups and please stay away from the second group, especially if you want to enjoy the movie.
Away from these groups watching Black Panther was a whole new experience. Most of us came out of the movie wowed, excited, and inspired. Many could not stop singing praises and even shouting “Viva Wakanda”.
For a week or so we were singing about the new exciting times about African stories that Black Panther had just ushered in until we came across John Kani’s words to the effect that the film was not likely to change the status of black actors in Hollywood nor see the increase in support of African films and storytellers.
John Kani who stars in the film said Black Panther was just another big budget Hollywood film and Africans should just see it as such.
His words had a sobering effect on us. It brought us back to reality — to the real Africa without spaceships, or the so-called special “vibranium” or super heroes.
The kind of support that Black Panther got if given to any local artistes or filmmaker would be life-changing. So as the excitement about Black Panther slowly dies down our challenge to locals is simple. Give local filmmakers the same support you gave Black Panther and see what happens.
The Zimbabwe film sector will never be the same again if it gets half the support Black Panther got. Just food for thought.
derick.khumalo