Many people remember her from the time she was the director of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF). She has been in the film industry for over 10 years now and her films have done well at various festivals around the world. Her latest cut though is not on a reel of film and will benefit other film makers immensely.

Rumbi’s latest project is a website that documents film in Zimbabwe from 1980 to date. The idea is to provide a one stop encyclopedia of films, filmmakers and other industry resources. The website was developed by Online Artist Promotions.

From 2004 to 2006 Rumbi served as Festival Director of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival and was instrumental in expanding the festival and its outreach programmes to a wider audience.

^ Rumbi Katedza.

She has directed a number of music videos for some of Zimbabwe's top artists, including Rocqui & Leonard Mapfumo, Sanii Makhalima, Roy & Royce, Achuzi and Jazz Invitation.  Her film credits include 'Danai' for which she was nominated for Best Director at the National Arts Merit Awards, and the award-winning 'Asylum'.

Rumbi is also a talented writer and many of her short stories about contemporary Zimbabwean life have been published, including 'Snowflakes in Winter' which is part of Weaver Press's 'Women Writing Zimbabwe' collection, and the award-winning 'Billboard Smile', which was one of the winners of the 2008 Anglo-Platinum Short Story Competition.

Responding to questions from The Zimbo Jam, Rumbi said that ZimbabweFilm.com was a labour of love that she was proud of. “Having worked in film for well over a decade now, I have had the opportunity to travel to many festivals and film markets, and everywhere I go, people are pleasantly surprised to hear that there actually are films being made in Zimbabwe.

“Unfortunately, as is the case in other African film industries, it is very difficult to access our films because of poor distribution networks.  ZimbabweFilm.com is a platform to market films and filmmakers from Zimbabwe so that people can learn about their work and access their films. It is a site where filmmakers can network, and ultimately, the website is there to encourage increased production opportunities in Zimbabwe.”

Rumbi also said that she hopes that the site will also serve as a way of archiving the film history of Zimbabwe.

It took her a year, on-and-off to compile the information on the site. “I was working on various other projects simultaneously,” she says, “but the website was never far from my mind. I carried forms around for months and forced people to sign up. Many were forthcoming, but there is still a lot more work to be done.”

She paid tribute to the Zimbabwe Culture Fund and the Goethe Institute, who invested in the idea.

Busy as ever, Rumbi is currently in pre-production on a couple of films and in post-production on a third. Look out for her name on the big and small screens in 2010!

• Full Disclosure: ZimbabweFilm.com was developed by Online Artist Promotions, a sister venture to The Zimbo Jam. Rumbi did say some very flattering things in her interview about our contribution to the project but, heish, to publish them would make us blush too much, so we left them on the editing room floor. :)

• Rumbi Katedza Bio courtesy of Mai Jai Films.
• Read the full interview with Rumbi on Zimbablog.
• Visit the new site www.zimbabwefilm.com

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Rumbidzai Cleopatra  - You Go!!! Cuz   |2009-07-03 03:39:01 The sky is the limit Darling keep on rising... Nothing can stop you!! Love you lots... Cleo Reply 0   0

Di Van   |2009-07-13 04:23:38 I can see big things in the future Rumbi. Don't stop. You are an inspiration. Reply 0   0

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