Africa-Press – Eswatini. What was meant to be an empowering exercise by the Eswatini National Film Association failed dismally, resulting in a clash with film-makers who took part in a competiton last year? As a result film makers have lost hope in the association after the competition did not end as they had promised.
The association had announced that over E20 000 would be given to winners across three categories. The association ran a competition back in October, where upcoming filmmakers were called to join a competition where they were also promised to win different cash prizes.
According to the candidates, they paid E100 to participate in the competition. “The competition seemed to be running fairly and smoothly until the day after the finals.
About 50 people had joined the competition and only 22 made it to the finals. However, only four movies were played on the night,” said one of the film-makers who had joined the competition. He said in December 2021, they all gathered to watch the different short films where they were promised to get the list of winners.
“We waited till the newyear and they told us that they only showed four films because the others did not meet the standards they were looking for, but till this day, winners have not been announced,” he said. Another applicant said he was disappointed in the way the association handled the matter.
“They called us for a meeting and told us they will give us money to compensate us, but never communicated anything after that,” said another applicant, who asked to remain anonymous. Eswatini National Film Association member Zakhele Mabuza, said they were still working on how they would compensate everyone who joined the competition.
“The films were of poor quality, even the ones we chose did not meet the minimum standards we were looking for,” said Mabuza. He added that they had decided to help all the film-makers and compensate all of them using the money that was set aside for the winners.
“We saw it fitting to use the money for good. We will be hosting workshops in all the four regions of the country. These workshops will help capacitate them on film production, which we believe will be a better outcome for them,” he said. Applicants believe the association should pay the four candidates their dues because their films were played on the night.
However, Mabuza said they would give everyone what they deserved after government’s financial year starts, as the matter was now under the Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture.
“We have decided to engage ENCAC, because we need help in hosting the workshops. We are planning on bringing film-makers from South Africa to help capacitate them,” he said.
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