HARARE - Zimbabwe's film industry, Zollywood, is making strides onto Africa’s biggest satellite television, Multichoice’s DStv.
Zollywood has got on Voxafrica Sky 218 (UK), DStv 191, GOtv 16, Free 475 and Bbox 661 (Africa).
The movies are starting with the old, moving to the new ones as a way of taking people through the journey of the Zimbabwean film industry.
The first movie to show was Yellow Card which showed at 8pm on Sunday June 1.
Other moves lined up are Neria on June 8 at 8pm, Everyone’s Child on June 15 at 9pm, Evil in the Midst on June 22 at 9pm and Thorns on June 29 at 9pm.
Joe Njagu, a local producer and director, said they were getting both exposure and income from the deals. “We are glad and we really appreciate this as we are not only getting exposure but we are getting paid,” he said.
“These people actually pay for the content you give them unlike ZBC which gives us advertising space then we have to look for adverts.
“The money generated from those adverts will be our income. So this is a step towards the right direction for us.”
Njagu said they would keep on producing fresh content as they now had a guaranteed space.
“The money we get will also be used to make more movies as you know budget constraints are a major setback for us.
“We have other stuff that’s already there and we are also looking at giving them Zimbabwean series.
“It feels good as a filmmaker to know that your content has somewhere it will be shown.
“I submitted three of my movies, The Gentleman, Lobola and Bitter Pill. They will be shown later in the months,” he said.
Zollywood is run by Tony Mliswa, a filmmaker based in England.
It runs a website on which people can watch a Zimbabwean movie of their choice.
Some movies or works that can be found on the website are Kiriboni the Menace, Sabhuku Vharazipi, Tale of the Box and many more.
Multichoice Zimbabwe spookesperson, Liz Dziva, said she was not sure about the new arrangement.
“What I know is that Rumbi Katedza’s The Team is showing on Africa Magic, but I am sure Zollywood got a slot too.
“The thing is, content is handled by a different department and Zollywood would not make this all up. So its possible that they were given a slot, which is good to have our own content being showcased,” she said.