ZIFF pulls huge crowds in Z'bar

The 17th annual Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) attracted up to 3,000 viewers to its events during every festival day. Some of the winners of the festival include ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, winner of best feature film and ‘Shadow Tree’ by Blja Viswa, which won a special mention at the Signis Awards.
This year the festival had a little bit of a bumpy start, but managed to bring film lovers and makers from everywhere in the world to the island of Zanzibar
 ‘The festival started roughly, but then slowly we filled the potholes and then we were cruising’, said festival director Martin Mhando.
‘We had some schedule changes and we lost one of our major music acts due to technical reasons’.
The theme of this year’s ZIFF was “A common destiny”. The festival acknowledged this not only through the chosen films, but also by giving the audience a chance to learn more about children with down’s syndrome through the power of art.
‘We wanted to link children with down’s syndrome as a part of that theme. We thought this would be a fantastic way of creating awareness. Down’s syndrome reflects the difference that all people have’, Mhando said.
The organisation Trabajo Voluntario organised a workshop with children with down’s during the festival, which allowed various children and the audience of ZIFF to interact in order to create awareness. Marisa Kimid, who works with the organisation, said that children affected by Down’s syndrome needed more help and funds in Zanzibar, so she started to raise awareness through Trabajo Voluntario.
‘In Zanzibar there is no place for them, so I started to make awareness’, she said.
Zanzibar International Film Festival is East Africa’s largest cultural event. It focuses largely on African films, but screens films from everywhere across the world. ZIFF has an own category for Tanzanian films made in Swahili. In this year’s edition, 34 films were submitted to that category and 12 of them were chosen to screen at the festival.
‘Tanzanian filmmakers don’t value festivals and we are a little disappointed that we only got 34 films for that category’, Mhando said.
‘Tanzanian film industry is doing pretty well, but not well. The films we show are still struggling and we could make much better films in Tanzania’.
The film festival is growing every year. Mhando appreciates the impact it has on tourism, and that people in Dar es Salaam have also come to understand in using the festival for tourism.
‘This is a good reason to come to Zanzibar, and it is something we do want to push’, he said. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN