UMLAZI in KZN has produced many actors such as Baby Cele, Siyabonga Shibe and Sandile Dlamini.
Now the township wants to produce more stars.
So, organisers of the second annual Umlazi International Film Festival want to inspire young people from the kasi to get into acting and develop them to be the best actors and filmmakers.
The film festival will be held at Umlazi Amphitheatre from Monday, 27 November to Saturday, 2 December and actors such as Baby, Thabo Mnguni, Sandile and Mduduzi Nombela are set to be part of it.
Sandile, who is festival director and also played Shongololo on Imbewu: The Seed, told Daily Sun the festival aims to promote, nurture and develop audiences for content creatives from Umlazi first, then the rest of KZN.
“The festival is an arts platform with key objectives to help uplift young voices in filmmaking from Umlazi, prioritising the youth, women and talented creatives living with disabilities.
“The festival doesn’t discriminate based on religion, colour and creed. We are positively branding Umlazi as a filming destination, a tourist destination and a progressive creative arts community,” he said.
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He said at the core of nation building lies storytelling, and filmmaking is on top of the list in storytelling methods these days.
“We established Umlazi International Film Festival not only to promote local filmmakers, but to also partake in nation building, preserving the rich undocumented history of Umlazi, restoring peace, unity and encouraging social cohesion through collaboration with filmmakers from other provinces and other countries,” he said.
The festival co-director, Sabelo Ngema, said: “We're also pleased to announce that we are partnering with Creative Arts College. They will give five bursaries to Umlazi youth interested in studying film and television.”
He added that during the festival there will be film masterclasses to take place in Mangosuthu University of Technology in Umlazi and screenings while other screenings will be at Umlazi Amphitheatre.
