Chronicle Editor
Yvonne Ncube, Chronicle Correspondent
Award-winning screenwriter, producer, illustrator, and entrepreneur, Mhle Nzima has left Early Entertainment, the company he has called home for the last seven years.
Early Entertainment is well-known for launching the Friday Late show, which is held every last Friday of the month at the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe Bulawayo and features free performances by artists and poets.
Nzima told Chronicle Showbiz that he was leaving to ensure that both the company and himself thrive independently without limiting each other.
“I feel broken-hearted leaving Early Entertainment because it has been my home for the past seven years and I have made so many good friends there who have become like family to me. Leaving them is like leaving my brothers, but it was a necessary move for both the company and myself to grow.
“Despite not being with them anymore, I’ll still do what I did while I was there which is animation, filmmaking, photography, music videos, event management, marketing and public relations, arts consultancy, and project management among so many more things. The only difference now is that I will do all that under my own brand, Rebel Film Productions,” he said.
“We parted ways because we had reached the limit of what we could communicate or accomplish as one voice and needed to each have the space and freedom to get our individual creative messages out to the world without limiting one another. When I originally partnered with Early Entertainment in 2015, it was to produce their first theatre production “Voices in my Head” because I had seen a creative passion and conviction in the director Elliot Moyo which reminded me of my own.
He said that they had reached the point when they could no longer do anything as one.
“We were both new to producing theatre so I also enjoyed the challenge of doing what everyone was saying was impossible, which was selling out a theatre show in Bulawayo when it was strongly believed that there was no audience for theatre locally. We both refused to believe that because I had previously done a few award-winning animated short films on my own as well as my first feature film “Moonlight Cross” with Gani Phiri and Percy Soko in 2014, which had a huge paying audience turn up despite similar stories about unsupportive Bulawayo film audiences.
“We worked together since then, getting better with each event and eventually collaborating on the first feature film from Bulawayo to be licensed by DSTV’s Zambezi Magic in 2017, “The Lost Letter” which I wrote and directed. Through our growth, we gradually found our individual voices and they became more apparent to us.
“Despite sharing common goals and messages, the voices through which we spoke started to sound too different and we constantly had to alter what we wanted to say so we could both accept it, but those compromises were slowly eating away at us inside because it was never truly our own voices speaking but altered and forced voices, so we finally decided to both use our individual different platforms instead rather than forcing each other to conform to a single voice,” he said.
Mhle said his company has existed since 2014.
“Rebel Film Productions has existed since 2014. It was just mostly in the background because for the past 7 years I had found a home in Early Entertainment that shared the same goals and we were content building together that way until now. I feel as creatives we get so comfortable in what feels normal for us and the people, we work with that even when we outgrow each other creatively and need to change paths, we force ourselves to keep walking down the road we’re on no matter how uncomfortable.
“That I feel is part of what causes us to fall into depression. Failure to express ourselves the way we want to eat away at us inside without us even realizing it and before long, we start drowning in sadness. I’m grateful that Elliot and I recognized this and came to a mutual understanding which would help both of us spread our wings and speak in our own voices. It helps that we’re best friends I guess, but it also makes it harder to part because we had gotten so used to doing everything together, but it’s a journey and I’m sure we’ll find a way to keep supporting each other’s strides as we continue to grow,” Mhle said.
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