{"id":9943,"date":"2012-05-03T14:03:35","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T14:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=9943"},"modified":"2012-05-03T14:03:35","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T14:03:35","slug":"a-massive-group-of-local-people-attacked-and-torched-some-businesses-belonging-to-refugees-and-other-foreign-nationals-more-especially-burundians-in-mponela-in-dowa-malawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/03\/a-massive-group-of-local-people-attacked-and-torched-some-businesses-belonging-to-refugees-and-other-foreign-nationals-more-especially-burundians-in-mponela-in-dowa-malawi\/","title":{"rendered":"A massive group of local people attacked and torched some businesses belonging to refugees and other foreign nationals more especially Burundians in Mponela in Dowa, Malawi."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cVery few people look at the film industry as a business here in Malawi\u201d, said Shemu Joyah, the director of the filmSeasons of a life<\/em>, during a public lecture given at Blantyre\u2019s sports Club on April 29th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

According to Mr. Joyah, the movie industry is a viable way to generate additional revenues for the country in addition to attracting tourism.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Shemu Joyah: Doing what he knows best<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cNigeria\u2019s film industry started 20 years ago. Today you will be surprised that Nollywood is the second largest filmmaking industry in the world generating revenues of 20 million US dollars yearly\u201d, said Joyah.<\/p>\n

For Joyah, Malawi has the potential to create movies up to the industry\u2019s standard but the lack of funding makes it very difficult for any aspiring filmmakers and scriptwriters to make their way into the business.<\/p>\n

Malawi\u2019s government has an estimated 20 million kwacha annual budget dedicated to culture (approximately 117\u00a0000 Canadian dollars) which is not enough to support the Malawian art industry. Joyah\u2019s first movie, whose cost amounted to $ 60\u00a0000 US dollars, was funded\u00a0using\u00a0his\u00a0personal\u00a0savings.<\/p>\n

But the lack of funding is not the only thing holding Malawi\u2019s film industry back: Accessing \u00a0information and obtaining the\u00a0necessary\u00a0authorisations\u00a0to film\u00a0is still very difficult in Malawi. According to Mr. Joyah this is mainly cause by the fact that employees working in public institutions do not want to take any decision because they are afraid they will lose their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to different institutions like the court, Chancellor College and the airport but they rejected my demands to film in these locations without giving me any good reason\u201d, explained Joyah.<\/p>\n

It took Mr. Joyah two months and several phone calls to receive a letter from the national court denying him the right to film inside their premises. However, he admits that the situation as eased a little since his movie was awarded in Canada, Tanzania and Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo my surprise, the people who couldn\u2019t provide the support at first where willing to when the film received recognition\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Joyah sees a great future for Malawi\u2019s film industry \u00a0internationally even though he admits that art in Malawi is still a \u201cnewly born baby\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFilms offer great inside of our culture. This happens only when we are able to tell our own stories and sing our own songs\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Seasons of a life<\/em>\u00a0is the only Malawian film currently available on the international market.\u00a0The last fishing boat<\/em>, Joyah\u2019s second long feature film is to be launched in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cVery few people look at the film industry as a business here in Malawi\u201d, said Shemu Joyah, the director of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1931],"tags":[2098,168,258,2272,2018],"class_list":["post-9943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","tag-arts","tag-blantyre","tag-malawi","tag-seasons-of-a-life","tag-shemu-joyah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}