'Promote African films'
A Senior Government official has implored the media in Southern Africa to
give the film industry more coverage and inform people about African films.
The Secretary for Education, Sport and Culture, Cde Stephen Chifunyise, said
on Thursday the media was not giving enough coverage to the region's film
industry, and in so doing hampering its development. "Right now we have a
festival going on but we do not see stories on who is attending the
festival," he told a Press conference in Harare. "We should be reading
feature articles on the film-makers attending the festival as well as
reviews on their films. Cde Chifunyise said more coverage would enable the
region's film sector to build an audience for its productions. However,
some journalists felt that the festival was discussing the same issues
raised at the last festival held in Harare in 1996 providing nothing new to
write about. Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Mines, Environment and
Tourism, Cde Edward Chindori-Chininga, has urged players in the film and
tourism sectors in Southern Africa to co-operate since the two industries
had synergies. He was speaking at a cocktail party hosted for delegates to
the Southern African Film Festival by the French Embassy in Harare on
Wednesday. Cde Chindori-Chininga urged film-makers not to give up due to
lack of funding saying other stakeholders would soon realise the potential
of the industry. He said players in the tourism sector faced the same
constraints but were slowly overcoming the problem due to realisation that
the industry had potential to generate money.
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