Zimbabwean Filmmaker, Tapiwa Chipfupa, Wants to Solve Structural Hurdles through AVEL

Zimbabwean director and producer, Tapiwa Chipfupa and her film initiative Audiovisual Entrepreneurs Laboratory (AVEL), were awarded the coveted Berlinale Talents Mastercard Enablement Programme at the recently concluded festival. The grant will support AVEL in equipping Zimbabwean producers with mentorship and guidance on film business. The Zimbabwean industry, like its neighbouring continental  counterparts, suffers from the absence of a defined structure and resources. Through AVEL and the Berlinale grant, Chipfupa is hoping to make the lonely journey easier for others. 

In this conversation with Culture Custodian, Chipfuwa spoke about winning the grant, AVEL and the industry-related challenges it will solve in Zimbabwe. 

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

When AVEL was awarded the Mastercard Enablement Programme at the Berlinale. In that split second, beyond the personal win, what did this signify for the future of Zimbabwean filmmakers?

Being a filmmaker is not easy, and it’s harder when your local industry does not have a defined structure and adequate resources in place yet. It feels like groping around in the dark. I liken it to pioneering. Being in a situation where the support and resources are limited, that consuming feeling of isolation is heightened because, well, there is no “roadmap”. I have been very fortunate to be selected for numerous mentorships, training programmes, and development opportunities over the years, which helped me to find my way. It has been and is my greatest desire to make that journey easier for others – to make it possible for others to have support by creating an access point that facilitates for them to be able to find their way with training, mentorship, guidance, and among peers. The recognition and support from the Berlinale Talents Mastercard Enablement programme for AVEL is a huge milestone. What was so incredibly overwhelming for me in that moment was that possibility –to make that happen for others- was now a reality. That in the future, there is now a point of entry for producers in Zimbabwe. It feels like a significant brick in the foundation of the local industry.

The focus has often been on the art, not the business of cinema. But, for you and your initiative, you’re focused on the “business” of cinema. How and why did you decide that AVEL would be driven towards entrepreneurship?

Film production is a business. While a producer relies on their creative knack to select a strong story, they must also operate like a business person. Making a film happen without the necessary support in your environment requires resilience, determination, perseverance and innovation. As the often unrecognised, or should I say unseen “captain” who steers the ship into the dock or, more aptly, brings the film to the screen, a producer is responsible for making what is very often the impossible possible. Yes, filmmaking is definitely a team effort, but when we break it down, the producer is that team member responsible for the realisation of the vision. They facilitate partnerships, relationships and necessary financing to make the film happen. Moreover they must make this a sustainable process. Mitigating that risk of producing a film requires the mind of an entrepreneur.

An industry does not magically appear overnight, it needs to be built. Producers are fire starters. As leaders, they are in a position to ignite this process, especially producers who are entrepreneurial and self-starters in nature. A film needs someone to “champion” its realisation. A process that creates employment.  The more films we have in process, the our hope will be in the long run for a fully functional industry. Essentially, if we have numerous “champions” in the landscape developing ideas, concepts, and scripts, that is a start; if there is a sense of possibility, direction, and community amongst them, ultimately progress will begin to happen in our local industry. We can facilitate key building blocks, such as the setting of industry standards and contribute to the establishment of a framework for example. From this process, slowly we will see an ecosystem emerge that will create a functional industry. In developing AVEL, I realised that the programme needed to take all this in consideration and facilitate producers’ awareness of entrepreneurship because this is what will build the local industry.

What are the defining elements of the Audio-visual Entrepreneurs Laboratory?

AVEL Producers Lab develops socially conscious creative entrepreneurs. When I say socially conscious I am not only talking about producers having a heightened awareness towards social or environmental issues. This is about the weight that comes with being a producer because it is a responsibility. As a producer, I cannot only be driven by the bottom line or self-preservation. Producers are developers and builders. I must consider the kind of content I am producing for the viewers and its potential  impact. I have a responsibility to facilitate authentic representation of my society, the genuine telling of our stories, the kind of content the audience consumes, and how they see themselves. What I do with this influence is important. This is the ethos behind AVEL It begins with a yearlong programme with the initial intensive session held over seven days, followed by shorter, more detailed follow up sessions that will be held quarterly throughout the rest of the year. These sessions provide foundational and fundamental topics that cover personal and professional development. Topics include the production cycle, project development, production management, ethics of producing and production, contracts, financing international co-production, masterclasses in filmmaking, distribution models, and marketing.

AVEL’s  goal is not to merely provide training and tools, but to offer a platform that provides much needed support for a producer to develop themselves and their career. By allowing the participants time to apply what they are learning by working through it together with  experts, mentors and peers; the programme facilitates for each participant to discover their voice, style, and ethos as a producer.  The year in training is merely the beginning and that is why, at the end of the year, AVEL alumni move to the Hub component of the programme where they continue to learn, exchange, collaborate, connect, and grow their careers. This creates a community and a network of producers where support, advice, and exchange can be shared not just among local producers, but on the continent. Due to limitations in capacity and resources African filmmakers have not always been able to exchange and collaborate with one another. This programme will not focus only  inwards, but with each new edition, create possibilities for exchanges between local producers and those from other countries, inadvertently pushing for growth of the continental economy.

You have experience working in the Zimbabwean film industry. How are you hoping the initiative will contribute to the industry?

AVEL has been on my mind for a long time. The programme has been shaped to produce producers who can navigate the challenges of a developing industry. I don’t believe an industry can be built in one day. It’s more of a one brick at a time situation. The most important element is the foundation of the building that we lay the bricks on. This is what AVEL proposes to do –to participate in the process of laying a solid foundation that, over time, will result in the building of a strong and fully functional local industry. A producer is essentially in many ways the “rainmaker”; the more rainmakers that are trained, the more possibility of quality films with both local appeal and international potential being made. This is not simply about producers being churned out every year, it is also about the quality and strength of the producers, as this will determine the level of impact.

AVEL is therefore not looking to merely give producers essential tools and then send them out into the world without any support. It is about the person, their vision as a producer, and how they will implement this. It is about helping them go forward with support. That has been my main experience as a producer in my landscape, it can often be lonely. It is about helping them define who they are as a producer and the road they want to take.  Of course, this cannot all possibly be achieved in a year. This takes time. Which is why as I mentioned, AVEL has a hub component that will allow alumni producers to continue to network, exchange and collaborate amongst themselves. This group will grow with each new intake every edition.  Furthermore, as filmmakers, we are not island, so the intention of the programme is not to only focus on local filmmakers. The intention is to seek collaboration with other countries on the continent and worldwide.

Funding and sustainability are recurring challenges for African filmmakers.  How are you planning to address that with AVEL?

Funding is always the difficult, but necessary part of filmmaking. Funding is always the elephant in the room. It is the “do not pass go” square on the monopoly board of filmmaking – without financing there is no film.  There is a lot of competition around funding and most of it is not even within African countries. The first and most important thing is to know the playing field. Creating strong producers who produce strong content that can find its way, whether on the local or international platform, through an intensive training process and to continue to offer them support, is the first stepping stone. I struggled a lot in the beginning because often I did not realise what I needed to bring to the table to even stand a chance. It took me a long time to understand that process, and I made a lot of mistakes because I did not know what I was doing. Having that knowledge from the start is important. Understanding that you are a brand, understanding that you may be pitching, but as a producer you are actually selling a product. That process of knowing how to position yourself and your product requires a level of acumen. We are back at the business of filmmaking again. This is one the elements that will be explored in the training sessions with AVEL.

Through its existence AVEL hopes to create confidence for local players to support local films with local funds. The hope is that in the future, this will create more funding opportunities for filmmakers. In a wider context, funding models or structures for African films are often complex. Funding of an African film often requires innovation and determination to close the budget. As a result, fewer African films get made. Alternatives to the regular models of funding must be explored. The possibility of structuring ways of working together with other countries on the continent has not yet been fully developed. AVEL ultimately does not want to focus solely on Zimbabwe and is seeking out ways to collaborate with filmmakers and organisations from other countries. This is obviously something that will take time, but this is one of the reasons why AVEL has come into being – to foster those connections with others, to champion for development of  the local film industry, and the growth of a continental industry. Again it is a process of laying foundations to create what may seem in this moment today like a far-fetched possibility – a functioning continental industry.

There’s often a ‘festival gaze’ where African films are expected to look or feel a certain way to win awards in Europe. How does AVEL ensure that local Zimbabwean and Southern African stories stay rooted in African identity while aiming for a global stage like Berlin?

AVEL Producers Lab, as a training programme, will not only impart critical tools to the participants but will encourage brave and bold storytelling. Tools are essential, yes, but at the core of the programme is the aim to empower its participants to not only be able to use the tools, but to be able to “wield” them. Wielding and using tools are two totally different things for me. Using tools implies a more logical and journeyman approach, whereas wielding represents harnessing the tools to make them your own. When you wield tools, you develop an approach and a strategy. This is at the core of what the AVEL is proposing. When you are yourself, you are always at your best. Whenever you try to be anyone but yourself, your true authentic self, the result is always diluted. This lessens the impact. There is a way to tell a story while still being yourself, still keeping your voice and your identity. You have to learn the rules and then be able to “break” them in a manner that still makes what you have to say powerful and engaging. By encouraging producers to embrace this, it lessens the need to fit into a particular box, which often results in the trend of what is expected from an African film. Of course, we aim for quality and excellence, but within that, we aim to be true to ourselves.

​As a female director and producer leading a major regional lab. How are you intentionally using this platform to fix the gender imbalance that might exist in the industry?

Women face marginalisation in the film industry, constituting a small fraction of the number of active film professionals in my country and on a wider scale. We tend to find ourselves in situations where we are prejudiced of opportunities due to our gender, and at times we can face forms of abuse. It is important to create space and a platform for women to play their part freely. This is something that I personally prioritise.

In my personal capacity as a storyteller and a director, I tend to focus on stories that are female led, intimate, personal, and character driven with unique and surprising contexts, perspectives, and flair. I am highly motivated by the idea of women achieving autonomy in their lives. As such I tend to create female characters that defy the circumstances they find themselves in and challenge the status quo, becoming heroines who own their narrative. I like to call these characters “disruptors”. Such stories allow women and young girls to see themselves from a different perspective, which I believe is important. On the ground, this allows for me to create opportunities for women through the casting, and then I look for possibilities for women to work on the production itself.

I am constantly looking for an opportunity to lift up other women. Every seemingly insignificant choice that allows for even one woman to be given a chance and to make the industry more accessible to them, for me, is progress. I am currently in the process of developing other initiatives that will focus primarily on empowering women filmmakers. Furthermore, whether within the Lab or among the participants; AVEL will give opportunities and priority to women where possible. The hope is that there are sufficient and strong applications from potential participants to achieve balance between the male and female participants. Ultimately, it boils down to the potential an applicant has in light of the programme, but the goal is to ensure fair representation of women among the selected producers. Youth will be of particular focus as they are the next generation of cinema.

With Audio-visual Entrepreneurs Laboratory contribution to the Zimbabwean film industry, what do you think the industry will look like in five years?

I cannot predict the future. AVEL will do its best to contribute in a way that will have an impact on and influence the growth of the local industry and the continental film economy. That is what AVEL proposes to do. Its very existence is a start. The programme will hopefully grow in a manner that allows for it to have a significant number of alumni after five years who will have begun to make progress on their respective paths. A baby does not become an adult overnight. A film takes years to develop and to finance. The same applies for our local industry and the continental film economy. So what I hope is that, in five years, through the initiative of AVEL, things will be significantly easier for filmmakers to navigate their environment productively. Finally, my hope is that AVEL Producers Hub, as a collective group of producers, will continue to grow each year. That AVEL’s footprint will begin to show through the alumni’s work and how they carry themselves as creatives and as entrepreneurs.