Discoveries from Zimbabwe World Cinema

Mugabe rises from being a prisoner to power as a guerrilla fighter but gradually becomes the world's top tyrant. After four decades in power his allies do the unexpected.

Faced with mounting debt and the heartbreak of being unable to fund his children’s education, Emmanuel Mutema is a desperate single father pushed to the edge.

Jon Snow comes out of retirement for one last investigation, travelling to Zambia to uncover a mining disaster being covered up by officials.

An experimental movie shot in the USA and Africa reconstructing childhood memories using inanimate objects in their original locations with off-screen actors playing the protagonists. A journey from New York to Boston for a Thanksgiving also provides a documentary-styled debate between a couple (the film makers) on the postive and negative aspects of family life.

Amidst failed harvests and the threat of AIDS, Zimbabweans look for work, preferably in South Africa. But their illegal status and xenophobic whites do not make life any easier in the neighbouring state.

Tanyaradzwa is an intelligent, outgoing girl from a rich, loving family. Life seems perfect until one night, during dinner, her nine-month secret is revealed with the birth of a boy. Feeling betrayed, her parents dredge out old skeletons and take out their frustration on each other. Unable to bear the guilt of destroying her family, Tanya flees to find the baby's father, no-good playboy, Marlon. Her only friend is Marlon's tough-talking cousin Ajira, who encourages her to sell her body, but not her soul, to survive. Family, friendship, loyalty and social morality show their true colors during this kaleidoscopic journey of a naive, desperate and too-young mother

Simbiso, a determined 17-year-old girl from a rural village, carries the weight of raising her younger siblings after losing their parents. When she is cornered by her aunt to marry an old man as a ticket out of poverty, she is forced to make a hard decision.

Shine is a teenager in Zimbabwe who doesn't believe in herself. In the face of life-altering events, she is forced to rely on her own ingenuity and determination to face her future.

Music by Prudence tells a self-empowering story of one young woman's struggle who, together with her band, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds and, in her own voice conveys to the world that disability does not mean inability. In addition to its sheer emotional punch, Music by Prudence has become the cornerstone of an advocacy campaign and has been embraced by the UN, Human Rights Watch and the disability community as an unprecedented portrayal advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities. Prudences poignant, inspiring and irreverent message of hope has received an amazing response from press and audiences all across North America, and has won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short and several other awards as it continues drawing in more audiences.

Black American healer shares about her practice and explores traditional healing, music, and dance in Zimbabwe.

When a young woman returns home to Zimbabwe to visit her ill father, a string of local disappearances reveal a frightening secret he's been hiding.

The Celebration' was made in 1989 to showcase the work of the National Dance Company of Mozambique, directed by Sol Carvalho. The company was formed in 1979 under the direction of the Ministry of Culture.

At the beginning of the 1960s, in Salisbury (now Harare), in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the government of Ian Smith hanged three black revolutionaries who had nevertheless been pardoned by the Queen of England. René Vautier, with ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Party for Unity), denounces this killing. Expelled by the Rhodesian police (informed by the French secret services), the filmmaker shoots a film in Algeria in the form of an indictment against colonial savagery. The film was first banned in France, then authorized in 1965.

James, a disgraced preacher exiled after a city scandal, is assigned to build a new church in a distant rural community. However, the land bought by the church is occupied by Chirongoma, a revered traditional healer. As a fierce rivalry breaks out between James and Chirongoma over the land, God Sleeps on Sundays presents a timely critique on the imperialist nature of religion in displacing Indigenous communities and eroding ancestral traditions.

A professionally commissioned documentary about the training of Rhodesian Regular Army Officer Cadets. It follows the fortunes of Inf 25/19 - a group of young men commissioned into the Rhodeisan Army in 1977.

A charismatic young boy who lives on a rubbish dump in Zimbabwe must convince a reclusive boxing coach to teach him to fight in order to find safety and strength in a world that has left him behind.

Offers a glimpse of the challenges faced by a cross section of Zimbabweans at the height of political turmoil and economic meltdown. It documents the lives of a 30-something metalsmith - and opposition supporter - running his small business while facing political violence; a middle-aged widow - and staunch government supporter - trying to run a farm she took over from a white owner; a doctor working amid healthcare collapse while trying to maintain her middle-class lifestyle; and a young girl who endures continuous pain from an advanced case of Kaposi's Sarcoma without any basic medical treatment.

Two prisoners, a white racist and a black man escape. They discover that the only way to survive is to bury their prejudice and rely on one another.

In a country ravaged by generational trauma, a psychiatrist trains grandmothers to treat depression within their communities.

Tonde gets in an argument with his mother and loses his temper which resulted in him hitting his mother. He starts living a "life of nightmares" as a way of paying for his misdeeds, the indignation. He could barely tell whether it is real or a dream.

Drought has struck. Father pushes his wife away from the family dinner of termites. In anger, when mother challenges him, he digs a pit with a brutal purpose, but little does he suspect that Mother can retaliate just as powerfully. Based on an old Shona folk tale and rendered as a musical celebrating a diversity of contemporaray Zimbabwean music, Mother's Day is the newest and most exciting motion picture development to come out of Zimbabwe.

A pulsating combination of powerful contemporary dance and exhilarating music, with water as the unifying element. Multiple dancers perform a shared choreography—brought together through the editing—across various locations in Zimbabwe, from dense forests and open plains to urban settings and pristine natural landscapes.

A young African man must try every trick in the book in this attempts to win the heart of the most beautiful girl in his village.

A young woman preparing for her customary marriage finds her future threatened when her former boyfriend, an escaped prisoner, arrives intent on stopping the wedding and disrupting her new life.

Chris, an immigrant, grapples with economic chains, a fragile love, and the haunting past of his homeland, Matabeleland. Amidst societal upheavals, he must find a way to retribution and reconciliation in a world that has forgotten him.

The story of young Kundisai Sande who desperately wants to get married but finds herself in a sexual network with disastrous consequences. Her boyfriend Teri deserts her, only to find himself in the same sexual network. Mahachi, the successful, promiscuous businessman who seduces Kundisai brings infection to the marriage bed. In the midst of their misery, the players in the sexual network come to realize that One Love can conquer all.

Filmed on Super 8mm, this is a fractured portrait of life for Zimbabwean migrants when they travel back home to visit. Christmas dancing, New Years Eve celebrations, house floods, and illegal gold panning are just a few of the events filmed by Roger Horn who bookends the film with a major life event for his family.

Set in 2006 amidst the diamond mining rush that started in Zimbabwe. To claim back their land, the Toropito brothers have to raise enough money to buy it back, forcing them to join the illegal diamond mining world.

A young man put in a moral dilemma is forced to choose between saving his dying pregnant wife or going against his beliefs.

Their country is bankrupt. Their bodies are broken. Neighbors consider them cursed. But in music, eight disabled Zimbabweans dared to hope.

Filmed in Zimbabwe, the film depicts the romantic relationship between two women, and the aftermath of the discovery of their relationship

A young man with extraordinary abilities unravels the shocking secret behind the mysterious murders in Stonelake.

Zimbabweans and their Diaspora. Family live in Zimbabwe is full of myths and speculations about the loved ones living abroad. But what is really happening to those ones far away from home? A close look at the Zimbabwean Diaspora in Germany and their families and friends at home.

While serving a 5-year sentence near Harare, Tambu learns her brother abused her daughter. Determined to protect her child, she teams up with inmates Memo and Zoe to escape. Amid rumors and a power struggle in the prison, they seize their chance during a 2017 ceremony as Zimbabwe's coup unfolds. The trio embarks on a perilous escape.

When Nyarai learns that her best friend Nonto is engaged, she and her friend Maxi become concerned that their window of romantic opportunity may soon be closing. Although she is a successful advertising executive, Nyarai’s parents are unsatisfied with the life she has chosen, and insist that she get married, while her younger sister Mati is ordered to give up on her dreams of basketball.

After living a high profile life as a model and wife to the then coach of the Zimbabwe national football team, Tendayi Westerhof stunned the nation by becoming the first high profile person to go public about her HIV positive status in 2002. Her enemies increased, some going to the extent of calling her disclosure a publicity gimmick. This beautiful woman has gone on to become a public figure in a very different way, as an elegant and glamourous AIDS activist in the world of modelling and the public media. Pamela Kanjenzana lives a very different life with her HIV infection in one of Zimbabwe's high density suburbs. Nevertheless she also manages to survive by living positivly. Two remarkable examples of how living with the virus has changed.

A deadly sound transmitted from space known as "The Signal", corrupts the minds of all who hear it, turning them into soulless Demons under it's control.

Ulysses' car breaks down late at night in the Avenues of Harare, he appears to be in familiar territory, while trying to get help he starts to panic and reflects on the past as he fights to leave.

2021 Zimbabwe Film

Short Documentary on South Africa and Rhodesia

A short film that uncovers the various ways MSM sex workers hide their profession, sexual preference, and character to protect themselves in a country that condemns homosexuality. The challenges this marginalized group faces in Zimbabwe include stigma, abuse from the communities, and rejection at healthcare facilities.

Rhuveneko returns to her family's village to claim her inheritance. Her father, the former chief. died during the liberation war. Confronting the new chief, her greedy and corrupt uncle, Rhuveneko learns of her father's true nature.

Research / Souvenir (Dialogues), utilizes found Super 8mm footage from Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and audio from ethnographic research gathered among Zimbabwean migrant women in Cape Town, South Africa. Part 1, Research, reveals the personal thoughts and challenges faced by researcher/filmmaker Horn in the field. Part 2, Souvenir (Dialogues), offers the research participants an opportunity to question Horn about his choice of souvenirs from the field, providing the political and economic backdrop to the ongoing exodus of Zimbabweans and leads up to the removal of long standing President Robert Mugabe on November 21, 2017.