A Fidelity to the Art of Frames - Jabulani Mudzvova

Jabulani Mudzvova is a writer/director from Zimbabwe, and the Co-founder of A Zimbabwean Art Collective known as the Authors. He believes in the power of films to portray political themes that inspire change.

Could You Describe Yourself?

I'm a quiet, pensive individual, that aptly describes my outward appearance, my inner reflects the storm. I am a do-or-die cinephile and a writer/director. Whatever estimate you have of how much I love film? Multiply it by a thousand. I'm pretty driven and tenacious.

How did You Begin your Journey and what Motivated Ywraps, and shootingou?

My friend Nigel mentioned "A Fidelity to your desire", the other day; it's a specific Lacanian ethical maxim. There's no separation between my love of cinéma and my need to breathe, as a consumer and as an artist. My desire to receive and tell stories has remained steadfast since I was a child, this is my purpose, my being. I have a strong will to portray certain stories and perspectives from my immediate community, my city, my country, and this desire to present a story to the world at large about us, by us.

At the same time it has to be bigger than us, the story itself. Film is such an interesting medium, I mean I look at the scale of work and the dedicated individuals who come together to bring together what has gone from being my vision to our vision. It has to be worth it, to spend days on set on your feet, 5 am call times, 11pm wraps, shooting when it's cold, raining, scorching hot. These are of course not the norm that one should set, don't get me wrong, but if you are going to go through all of that, it has to be worth it to have a crew around you sacrificing their time.

When I made my first film. I thought I'd never get a chance to do it again so I had fun. That kind of sticks. I always try to have fun. This is a good question. It's probably something I've been reflecting on daily since the year began. To be honest I'm privileged to be part of an artist collective "The Authors", being in a like-minded group of driven artists who have made several strides as individuals and as a collective is invaluable.

I guess collectively solving problems together and having an open space to discuss what I'm feeling when I'm frustrated, for example, when production slows down or anything else. I also make sure to speak to artists who are where I want to be just to make sure I'm not having some sort of isolated experience. It's always affirming.

Can You Walk me through Your Process?

I write all the time, not entire scenes in one go, but sometimes it can be a line of dialogue I think is good or a certain scenario that would be good narratively. Sometimes I keep writing and end up with a script in 3 days, sometimes I write and combine one scene with another over a period of time.

I like to keep myself open to inspiration, always questioning and expanding my own taste. The visual aspect is a separate process but equally as thrilling, that's more feeling and how my brain reacts to visual language in tandem with the written prose. What's going on, where are we, what's the emotion? How to frame it, who's in the frame, what's the blocking? What lens are we using and why? Are we going tight for a close-up? Are we distorting? Are we isolating on a wide, doing a push-out?

Visual language is interesting as a practice because it's different from writing. I've been writing forever, the art of constructing a visual language, though? It's also funny at the same time because you have a million choices, but circumstances can disrupt this order. I have a strong feeling about cinematic grammar, I will say. I love the camera and what it can do just as much as I love words. Getting the brain to react subconsciously as you watch something unfold on screen?

Only cinéma. I did win a best director award last year, very affirming. I like to have a grip. I usually create a shot list with enough space for improvisation. I did shoot a piece of work with no shot list, though that was an interesting exercise. At least now I know I can do both. I always need my time to envision the edit so that we reduce coverage. I'm unfortunately a disciple of Werner Herzog, no coverage!

How did You Begin Filmmaking? What did You Consider?

It's difficult to describe the level of doubt I had then, because now if you ask me I don't tolerate doubt towards my work from anyone. But back then it was more to do with my career trajectory at the time and taking the jump to do what I actually want to do. It's an odd level of cognitive dissonance but my friend Cyril helped to convince me that I should give it a try and that's how I ended up with my first screenplay. The doubt didn't end then oddly enough, two years later the same friend convinced me to apply for The ALZ film fellowship enabling me to Direct my first short film.

Did You ever Face any Challenges and did You Consider Quitting when You did?

Yes, I faced challenges, but I wouldn't describe it as quitting necessarily. But I do question the worth of what I'm doing. The early mornings, 2-hour nights of sleep, surviving off Red Bull. The financial sacrifices, pitching my very non linear dream to my parents, friends, family. Explaining the film industry is like speaking in Latin in the middle of the cbd, if you're not in it, one can only understand so much. The intensity of the craft itself is unrelenting.

I have bad days and on those all people can really say or do is say sorry. However I always show up and I think in part it's why I'm where I am. I see people quit every day. I see the lack of progress, projects never finishing and that's enough to tell me I can't quit, I want to see my dreams through, what life would I have without my passions? So I guess I do think about it, but it's too revolting to consider for more than a second. So it never settles.

What would You Describe as Your Muse?

I like these questions. I haven't had a traditional muse before. In regards to what offers me direction I'd offer a two part answer. Firstly I'm strongly attracted to multiple certain types of stories, secondly I'd definitely say I'm inspired by Zimbabweans and I like to see how I can apply these scenarios in a way that speaks to me and sticks. Thinking of what makes narrative and cinematic sense for a full well rounded story. I guess I'm dedicated to the story.

Whatever it may be. Like a hunting dog with its tail up. I will ask myself is this worth a story. Anything you would like to share with someone who is just starting out in your discipline? Filmmaking is different from other art forms. It is a practical and not a theoretical exercise. Write, direct, shoot something, show it in front of an audience let the credits roll, then you are bestowed the title of a filmmaker. Do not fall for the pleasure of this title before you have done anything, it is deceitful, this artform requires honesty and chastity. What I could say that's more useful is.

Research as much as possible, reach out to people if you want to work on a set and shadow, don't be shy. Form communities, find someone who writes, someone who wants to direct, someone with a camera, someone with a laptop and editing software. And a community of people to share it with. It can be extremely painful and may appear unrewarding, but keep at it.

Secondly please immerse yourself completely in films. Study regional cinema, expose yourself to different directors, writers, cinematic styles, the history of cinema, the history of African cinéma, get access to contemporary cinéma, engage and engagement is the only way.

This will feed your confidence! Explore and explore!

Do You use Your Work for Activism?

Tricky question. Yes I am an activist, I'm quite outspoken, I've done the protests, the campaigns, I mean currently my country is experiencing a bastardization of the constitution by the sitting government , I will always speak against tyranny. I may not have much of faith, but one can't help but feel moved when one witnesses evil, apathy is to rob oneself of humanity. Now with this medium in front of me from photography to film.

I believe I have found a more powerful way of communicating my ideas and feelings. My work is designed to evoke. I cannot be an artist and refuse to present our daily realities. We speak of realism in film, if the vendor on the side of the road has a certain opinion, I will portray it rightly so.

Going back to the constitution issue I mentioned above. They're currently trying to pass a bill to extend the presidential term by another two years and to change it from one man one vote, to parliamentarians, "I electing the head of state. I'm not sure of your depth of understanding of Zimbabwean politics, it can be difficult to follow because something is happening at each second at each moment and the human mind can only take so much. But anyway I digress back to my work. It's ironic my friend Sim (a member of the Authors) and I shot the last elections on film as part of a documentary photography series, who knew we could be potentially shooting the last Presidential election? That photo series suddenly has more value.

The subject matter of my first film and I think the sheer strength of that message is what carried it all the way to the National Arts Merit Awards the countries highest awarding body. I mean think about it. The film is an adaptation of a twitter thread of a guy talking about his daily struggles in Zimbabwe. I've never had so many people approach me to say “'I feel like you've written about my life.’’

To even have older people say no this film is not just for young people but for us older people as well was pleasantly surprising. But again, as I mentioned before, these are the results of mulling over a story over and over, deciding if it's worthy. I think my follow-up work will emphasize this position even further with what I describe as observational work.