First ever National Film School underway through ZAMCOM and SOTAMBE Film Institute (SFI) partnership

The Zambia Institute of Mass Communication Educational Trust (ZAMCOM) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with SOTAMBE Film Institute (SFI) on the Copperbelt to commence training in Film production throughout the country with an initiative of starting with Lusaka and the Copperbelt.

This agreement that endeavors to start a National Film School brings together media, art and culture and sought to bring out its cinematic value through film production. The collaboration has further put up measures to find modalities of enhancing the shaping of Zambia’s unexplored film industry to an internationally acceptable level in terms of content quality.

“Our move of starting a National Film School is in response to government’s efforts of diversifying the economy by strengthening the Zambian Film Industry to make it competitively robust and also to enable the industry create jobs,” said Jeff Mubiana Nalwendo (ZAMCOM Broadcasting Manager) who is spearheading the programme in Lusaka. The Government has further made strides towards this venture by tabling before cabinet and operationalizing the Film Policy in a bid to make the Film Industry contribute to National Development.

It is therefore against this backdrop that the two media and film production institutions have entered into this agreement to put in place strategic measures to stimulate growth of the industry through capacity development and skills impartation.

The National Film School will therefore commence training this October with classes in Kitwe and Lusaka beginning with Certificate Programme in Filmmaking. The Certificate Programme in Filmmaking is a ten-month programme that focusses on all aspects of filmmaking. Learners will receive a clear understanding of what it takes to be a filmmaker and will be able to pass through all the stages in the filmmaking process (pre-production, production and post-production). This will enable them to produce a number of their own short films and final Graduation project during their studies.

Martina Mwanza, a Director of SOTAMBE Film Institute emphasized that “the programme is unique in that it combines both theoretical and practical aspects of filmmaking and also ensures a collaborative learning process through interactive sessions with the film industry experts, and hands-on experience throughout the study.”

Mr. Nalwendo further appealed to Government and other key players to continue coming on board to support this national initiative throughout its infancy stage and beyond. “We would like to request for support from Government and various cooperating partners as well as media houses to come on board and to see to it that the Zambian Film Industry contributes to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”