Chronicle Editor
Ruth Butaumocho : Gender Profile
Growing up in a family of successful business people, Patience Gamu Tawengwa knew that hard work and integrity were tenets of success. Armed with those virtues, she did not surrender herself to the comfort and rich trappings of the family business, but worked hard to establish herself. Years of hard work, persistence and determination indeed paid off for Patience, after she recently launched a production house that is set to change the landscape of television production in Zimbabwe and the region.
Milele – which means forever in Swahili – is an African television and film content production house aimed at enabling Africans to tell their own stories through the production of high quality African films and television programmes.
“Setting up Milele production outfit, is my way of creating and contributing and hopefully leaving to Africa beyond just my lifetime. It (Milele) is an avenue where artists in Africa will have an opportunity to create and share inspirational African stories from a human perspective,” Patience said in an interview recently.
Milele was launched in September last year and currently working on four concepts, which will be out soon.
Patience who has been dabbling with theatrical productions for nearly a decade after returning home following the completion of her film studies in the early 2000, said her desire to establish a content production house was inspired by the need to circumvent funding challenges that made it difficult for artists to sustain themselves.
The decision was also inspired by her desire to change the negative African narrative being peddled around.
“For instance, we often read about African presidents in a vilified way. People don’t get to see the issues in a three dimensional way, them (Presidents) being fathers, husbands, in-laws and other roles they play that are hardly brought to the viewers or readers attention.
“Africa has a lot of positive and inspiring stories that are yet to be told, by the African people themselves,” she said.
In addition to her desire to add her voice to the positive and real African narrative, she also wants to harness opportunities in television, which the world has since embraced as the most effective medium of communication.
“Television is the future. Gone are the days when watching television meant that one had to spend hours by the couch glued to the black box. Live streaming now presents the discerning viewer with a wide range of opportunities. You can now watch television from the Internet, on the smart phone, the tablet and anywhere for that matter,” she enthused.
Because of the array of opportunities that television now presents the demand for quality content is also growing, notwithstanding the attractive remunerations associated with it, says Patience.
“I have also tasted the money in television production and I am not about to let go,” she said.
Patience who is already finalising her first television concept titled Somewhere in Africa, said she reaped the first rewards of television production by “accident” after receiving payment for a short documentary she had made six years before – on a zero budget.
“In 2009, my sister, a church-mate and I did a short television production titled Edible Africa, on a zero budget.
“We then gave it to ZTV, but after only airing it briefly, they pulled it off, saying we needed to pay for its airing,” she recalls.
Sometime in 2014, Patience bumped into a South African Craig Kelly, who promised to have the television production aired in different African countries.
A few months later, Craig sent Patience an email, giving her details on the money she had made after Edible Africa was aired in Tanzania and Malawi.
“That was my first taste of money that can be made from television and I realised that I could actually make more than what I was making from theatre and elsewhere,” Patience said.
That realisation coupled by her television experience she acquired while studying for film, spurred her into action, giving birth to Milele production house.
“When I was growing up, my initial dream and inspiration was to become one of the Africa’s directors, who know how to make words from the page of a script, breathe life into them and turn them into great and moving visual stories, which would live on forever through television and film.”
That will now be possible with the establishment of Milele. Barely a year old, Milele, has already made significant progress in developing synergies with local and regional artists interested in taking part in the productions.
“Milele is a social enterprise and I believe there are a lot of opportunities that we can harness, to produce quality productions, while creating employment for talented artists out there,” said Patience.
She added although the project is not yet financially sound, she is optimistic that it will soon start generating money and be able to fund its production.
Patience added that the greatest tragedy stalling the development of the arts sector in Zimbabwe is the issue of funding.
“Funding dynamics for arts projects in Zimbabwe are very frustrating. Those who want to fund projects usually tie their money to certain conditions, making it practically impossible for an artist to remain independent.
“And when funding is available, it becomes very difficult to get the money, especially when you are a woman.
The story is even more tragic for local female artists, who despite their capability often fail to attract meaningful funding for their projects, with some receiving pauper burials, when they die.
“I cannot name even one single Zimbabwean woman artist who has become wealthy through the arts. What I have seen first-hand is that the women who inspired us, the ones we used to watch on TV and in films in the early 80s, they really struggle financially in their later years and sometimes experience disrespect after decades of hard work and contribution to the Zimbabwean arts sector
“I have since realised that the only way to survive without door funding is to take the risk and make arts a business venture that has a proper business model,” she said.
A co-founder of Almasi Collaborative Arts, Patience however remains optimistic that the arts sector, particularly television is the bastion for talented and hard-working artists.
“Zimbabwe now has an emerging middle class who are looking for a different but positive narrative about Africa, so how can we afford to fail?
“We cannot continue to have our stories told by foreigners, packaged differently and have to part with our money to watch the stories about ourselves.
“By proxy we are already funders of foreign production about ourselves. We should not allow that to continue,” she said.
Patience, who is inspired by Mosunmola Abudu known world over as Mo Abudu, a Nigerian female owner of Ebony production house says only the sky is limit for Zimbabwean artists who dare to dream big. The increasingly flat world of the media industry, where barriers to competition – regional, cultural or technological – continue to fall, has been a boon to exceptional women from across the globe, and Patience’s story will certainly roll with others.
Online Reporter