ZIFF 2015 is largely going to be prefixed on the growth and success of ZIFF 2014. This is a play on two words that inspire the Festival this year – DOCUMENTARY and ANIMATION ‘Documation’.

Animation is a critical tool to use to pass on cultural and traditional values and teachings. The messages of passing on oral history through folktales and narration needs to be complimented by visual means.

The mix of Documentary and Animations bores DOCUMATION! Which is in pursuit of our desire to see more and more filmmakers, especially the emerging ones, use these tools to tell our factual stories for the keepsake of our nationhood. Again ZIFF 2015 will mix conventional film cinemas and non-conventional places to be prepped up for screenings. This will allow us to spread the Festival to other places that would ordinarily not have seen the choice screenings available.

Director's Remarks

My first year as Festival Director couldn’t have come at a better time than this – a time when we have the theme DOCUMATION. As a passionate lover of documentary films I found myself reveling at the prospect of curating a Festival that paid particular bias to this genre. You will notice that there is a bigger Documentary screening schedule this year. This is a first at ZIFF. Our attention to animation is through the Nafuna Campus that we have curated with Nafuna TV. This campus will focus on growing an animation industry in Zimbabwe that can meet the potential that already exists.

Other programmes running during the Festival will include the Short Film Project. Two very beautiful films have been produced through this programme this year, The Colour of Life and Freedom. We are particularly proud of these films because of the competitive quality in which they are made and presented. Also pleasing is the National outlook of our SFP this year, with Freedom being a Bulawayo production and Colour of Life coming from Harare. We have also programmed the two films from last year. Our Outreach to Educate programme continues this year with screenings in Mbare, Copacabana Taxi rank, Young Africa Skills Center in Chitungwiza and Epworth, as well Warren Park, Highfields and Kambuzuma.

Our Film Forum is a full Industry Programme of workshops, discussions and pitch sessions. Look out in particular for our pitch sessions hosted by Restless Talent Management as well as the Zambezi Magic one. We have panel discussions on co-productions and a Documentary Film making workshop conducted by celebrated South African filmmaker Riaad Hendricks.

ZIFF2015 Documation! Is proud of its partnerships with the Embassies of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Denmark and Sweden on the hosting of National Days. I would also thank our traditional partners Old Mutual and The Norwegian Embassy. All those who supported us are not skipped but hopefully do get the documentation of their efforts we have placed in our programme.

See you at one of our 6 main and 10 Outreach venues for a world class collection of films to view. You will enjoy over 46 screenings of 63 films including some that have won a collection of awards internationally.

Happy viewing and lets all have a wonderful Festival!

Farai Elton Mjanana - Festival Director

Festival staff