Zambian filmmaker ‘in shock’ over Bafta win

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Zambian filmmaker ‘in shock’ over Bafta win

4:27 CAT | 20 Feb 2018

Film-maker Rungano Nyoni said she felt “genuine shock” when she was named a Bafta winner.

The Zambian director, who moved to Wales aged eight, won the outstanding debut prize for her film I Am Not A Witch – about a young Zambian girl at a witch camp.

“It was a real big shock – I know people say that, because I’ve watched these awards,” she told the BBC’s Good Morning Wales:

Genuinely, we were sat at the back in a bad position and we’d seen the others nominated in better positions, so we’d predicted who would win – it was a sure-fire bet – everyone had predicted it would go to another film.

So we were pretty relaxed – I was waiting for my category to go so I could go to the toilet.

And then they called it out – and it was a shock – and my mum was shocked – she started crying.”

Nyoni, who spent a month in a so-called “witch camp” in Ghana researching the film, has been praised by equality campaigners for highlighting the issue.

“Films on under-reported or little known gender abuses are very important as they can bring these often hidden issues to the public’s attention and force them into the light,” Shelby Quast, director of the charity Equality Now, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Bringing these stories to light can help survivors, civil society and communities to hold their government and duty bearers to account.”

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image – film, television and game in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awards ceremonies, BAFTA has an international, year-round programme of learning events and initiatives offering access to talent through workshops, masterclasses, scholarships, lectures and mentoring schemes in the United Kingdom and the United States. [Wikipedia]

Source: BBC