The Zambian financial services industry that includes banks and micro financiers has been challenged to deepen their offering to enable sectors such as the film industry to fully take off.
The film industry in Zambia has for a long time been trying to get on its feet and make its foray into international Cinema’s. But there has been many challenges for film makers in terms of financing and limited sponsorship.
In the past few years, the country has seen an improvement in production and uptake of its film industry due to a few film makers who have been pushing hard using their own resources as well as utilizing a few sponsors in order to produce quality movies that can sell internationally.
On the 14 of November 2020, a movie called “BLACK DOLLAR” was premiered at the government complex and saw prominent citizens, government officials and leading artists in attendance. The movie was produced by David Kazadi, a Zambian film maker.
In an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, David Kazadi stated that the movie was a success in that a lot of people from the both political, entertainment and business sector including various artists attended the premiere.
Kazadi said that the idea was to show the invited guests especially those from the corporate sector that the creative sector does not have to be so far from the them and that the two can work hand in hand to complement each other.
He stated that there were more than 500 people who attended the premier and that the response was good because people were reacting to the laughter in the movie and also shade tears to emotional parts.
Kazadi disclosed that all the 50 tickets which were meant for the general public and where going for K1,000 each were all sold out within 24 hours and there was even demand for more.
Kazadi explained that when it comes to the movie industry, Zambia has always been talented and that the only missing link to produce movies is luck of an established financing model. He said that luck of infrastructure like film schools and drama schools at university level also contributes in the production of low quality movies.
He added that many who wish to be film makers usually go through some form of “soft training” such that, if one has had no basic training, they end up learning the wrong things and producing poor quality movies.
Kazadi said that in order for the world and Africa to recognize Zambia as a country that is able to produce good and quality movies, film makers need financial support from government, local companies and local businessmen.
Furthermore, he said that stakeholders need to trust the film industry just like other countries trust theirs. Kazadi explained that people have a positive picture about European and North American countries because of how they are portrayed in the movies.
Kazadi stated that western countries mostly portray their countries as full of glitz and glamour, thus attracting a lot of tourists from across the world to tour the countries. He said that not all places in Europe or the US are attractive and that some of the slums from the western world are worse than some in Zambia.
He added that financing and sponsoring the film industry would result in a lot of tourists to be interested in visiting the country, there by delivering foreign exchange for the economy.
Kazadi disclosed that they are currently developing part two of ‘Black Dollar’ with production expected to commence in 2022 and is more likely to be released between 2023 and 2024. He also added that the movie will go up to part five.
However, Kazadi dismissed the claim that the movie was sold for US$10 million. He said that he could unfortunately not reveal the exact amount it was sold for because of the confidential contract agreement he signed with a British distribution company.
He also said that Kazadi movies is currently working on a TV series called ‘The Secret Life of a slay queen (Diva)’ which involves local stories and that it shall be released soon.
Kazadi said that he is looking forward to the government through the National Arts council, Bank of Zambia – BOZ and the financial services industry to come up with policies that will enable tailored financing solutions to be developed.
There is need to step up the provision of financing Solutions that will provide a more conducive environment for the film industry in order for the country to make quality movies that can be recognized internationally.
Analysts say the Zambian public consumes more imported content or movies at the expense of local content which eventually is causing the currency to continue depreciating. Its in the long term interest of the country that policies are adopted that will lead to developing a robust local film industry.
