adminTHIS past week, Thursday and Friday to be precise, Bulawayo film and television content producers finally got to meet the head of Zambezi Magic television channel, Mr Audel Dzinoreva. For the un-initiated Zambezi Magic is a channel on Dstv. The meeting was long overdue after Mr Dzinoreva failed to come down to Bulawayo after his meeting with content producers in Harare early this year. The meeting was very important as Bulawayo is regarded as a critical content hub for Zimbabwe.
Before the two hour meeting at a local hotel Mr Dzinoreva toured the City of Bulawayo and a few cultural institutions just to get a taste of what the city can do. Throughout the meeting and subsequent talks Mr Dzinoreva was very clear about his mission. He was in Bulawayo to look for exciting content for his channel.
In the meeting he took time to explain the reasons behind the creation of Zambezi Magic and why it was important for Zimbabwe content producers to have their content on Zambezi Magic. He also made it clear that the channel was not looking for Eurocentric concepts but original Zimbabwean stories. Some of the interesting points that came from his talk were:
1. Zambezi Magic is targeting Southern Africa audiences and content producers. He said while targeting the whole of Southern Africa the channel is focusing more on Zambia and Zimbabwe and expects more content from these two countries.
(I think it’s a numbers games here. Zimbabwe and Zambia have bigger populations. The potential in terms of Dstv subscribers is huge)
2. Their focus at the moment was on dramas, soaps, and reality shows. These can be licensed, commissioned or core produced.
3. Their interest is more on the story, interesting stories over technology. We all know the story of Nollywood and its phenomenal success. Technical people laughed at Nigerian films, especially at their poor quality, but Nollywood producers smiled all the way to the bank. It is a proven fact now that viewers are more interested in good stories they can easily relate to than a lot of special effects.
4. Tell your stories in your local languages, producers were told. Maintain your identity. The channel is looking for the Zimbabwean identity in your films. In other words here is another platform to showcase Zimbabwean culture in its diversity.
Many of us who were excited about the coming in of Zambezi Magic and were now silently questioning the serious presence of South African films and programmes like Generations, Isidingo, Diski Divas and others on the channel– to be honest one can see most of these on Mzansi Magic and other Dstv channels. Well, the response to that from Mr Dzinoreva was that there was nothing that has been licensed from either Zimbabwe or Zambia to fill up those spaces. But the bigger plan is to have either Zimbabwean or Zambian dramas, soapies, and reality shows taking up those spaces.
So there you have it content producers. The opportunities are there. Some are still on their way. There is a lot of space that need to be filled with content. As we write a couple of Zimbabwean content is already on the channel. We have seen The Arthur Evans Show, Zim’s Top 10 and others. There are serious rumours about new Zimbabwean shows coming to Zambezi Magic. This must have many Zimbabwean content producers excited. As more spaces and opportunities open up our hope is that Zimbabwean artistes and content producers will benefit while put our country stories and culture on the world map.
Online Reporter