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Bruce Ndlovu
Zimbabwean film producer Davison Mudzingwaa��s star is on the rise, with his award winning documentary, Lost Tongue, hailed as one of the highlights of Africaa��s biggest film festival, the ongoing Durban International Film Festival.
The 37th Durban International Film Festival opened at the Durban Playhouse last week, with Mudzingwaa��s doccie emerging as one of the early highlights of the film festival which is the biggest and oldest of its kind on the African continent.
Dozens of film enthusiasts, filmmakers and actors gathered at the Durban Play house on 16 June for the opening of the 37th edition of the annual Durban International Film Festival which runs until 26 June.
Lost Tongue made its world premiere at the Socially Relevant Film Festival in New York, where it won the Women Film Critics Circle award in March. This week the film is one of eight documentaries out of 40 that are in the running for the best documentary prize at this yeara��s festival.
The documentary is the brainchild of 34-year-old South African-based director Mudzingwa (ABOVE) who alongside South African cinematographer Themba Vilakazi follow the story of a young Khomani-San woman, Helena Steenkamp, and her race against the clock to save the language of her people.
Believed to be 25 000 years old, the endangered N!uu language is spoken by just three surviving elders, with the youngest being 84, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The duo followed Steenkamp over three years.
Speaking on SABCa��s Morning Live over the weekend Mudzingwa, who runs film production company Mvura Ya Afrika, said that he was honoured by the appraisal that his work had received from the festival.
a�?We regard DIFF as the Mecca of film gatherings in Africa and we are so privileged that as Lost Ton gue we are part of an impressive line-up that are showcasing this year in Durban.
That in itself is good news enough but what is even more interesting is that out of 40 documentaries that were selected to be part of DIFF, Lost Tongue is part of eight that are in competition. We are honoured and encouraged by this,a�? he said.
Mudzingwa also hailed the storytelling traditions of Africans, which he said were the foundation of much of his work.
a�?What I love about Africans is that we are born storytellers. Ita��s natural to us and that is why even our history we have gathered through oral tradition and even when we talk in informal settings we are interesting storytellers.
a�?But the thing about film is that it is a very costly industry and if you look at developed countries like the United States they have spent a lot of time developing their film industry. This all helps in building the image of the United States and that is what we need to do more as Africans, that is, to tell more of our stories,a�? he said.
After DIFF the doccie is set to exhibit at the Indie Karoo Film Festival.
Online Reporter